T is for
by To Sink Into Silence
Summary: Terra finds herself between a rock and a hard place when she is forced to work with L despite being a Kira supporter. Will everything go "according to plan" as she learns more about the characters' true natures?
1. Travel

**Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of its characters except Terra.**

Travel

Terra woke up dazed on a bus. She didn't remember how long she'd been asleep, although it must have been a while or else her butt wouldn't hurt from the crappy cushion provided, nor when she had even gotten on the vehicle. There were a lot of people on board considering the time of day, and as a shock to her, they all had black hair. Last time she checked, that just didn't happen. _Did I miss my stop or something? _and _What. The. Hell. _crossed her half-awake mind and were blatantly plastered on her face. No one had seemed to notice though, they were all busy with their own important lives.

The driver spoke through the microphone, probably saying what stop they were approaching, but Terra wasn't positive. He was speaking in a foreign language. Some business-looking men stood up from their seats along with a mother and her small child clinging to her arm. It would've been cute if it wasn't for the fact that Terra was confused as hell.

She had no freaking idea what to do next. They don't teach you how to handle finding yourself on a bus where drivers don't speak English and you don't know where you are. Staying on the bus didn't seem like a very good option, since it was just a waste of time, but getting off and being lost like a tourist sounded just as bad. So this is how children felt when they lose their mothers in a public area. What a crappy feeling.

Terra then decided to leave this up to chance. After quickly digging through her small bag that was hung around her shoulder, where was she going originally?, a coin was found. She flipped it. Heads. Off the bus she went.

The street was moderately busy as well. More black-haired people. A few people gave her second glances for being the only brunette in the area. But now Terra was at a loss for ideas. She couldn't just go down streets flipping coins and seeing where she'll end up; that solution was used up. But there had to be something or someone that could help her.

It was then that she realized something was off, more than being lost. All the buildings and people looked almost drawn. That just wasn't possible; these sort of things are just plot for fanfictions, not real. You can't actually wind up in an anime. But she needed to keep an open mind. If this was the case, then that would explain the bus driver's language and the people's black hair. Terra never had been in Japan before. This was actually pretty interesting now.

She wandered through some streets, searching for any familiar faces or featured buildings she might recognize. _This would really help if I knew which anime I was in_, but she didn't know and it was getting dark. Lights started to come on in the buildings around her. Panic was induced in Terra's mind. Being alone on a dark street was the stupidest thing a person could do, whether they were in an anime or not. She rushed into the nearest building.

Had Terra stayed outside and kept walking, she would have met a certain character and would have witnessed a terrible motorcycle accident. Perhaps her fate would have been different then. Perhaps not.

It was a hotel lobby, full of travelling people and the usual morons that lounged about. She didn't want to get caught and identified as a runaway seeking shelter, so she acted like she knew what she was doing and walked past the front desk towards an elevator. One of the people at the desk saw her, a woman, and called out, but Terra ignored it since she didn't have a clue what the woman was saying anyway.

The doors slowly closed and she was now in the shaft with a few strangers. They pushed different buttons and patiently waited for their stop. One got off on the second floor, three on the third. She decided to get off with one of the people on the fourth; he seemed too preoccupied on his cell phone to question her motives.

The hallway was a tad eerie to Terra. No one except the man and staff member with a tray of some food was not in a room. He then left her alone with the waiter-like person by entering his room, still talking to whoever was on the other line. She kept walking. Halfway down the hall, the waiter also stopped at a room and started to knock on the door. Terra went to a different door and pretended to look for her room key, watching the man out of the corner of her eye.

She was close enough to hear someone on the other end fiddle with a lock, then saw a hand take the tray. The door opened all the way for a brief second while the waiter turned to leave. The man walked back into his room, the door closing itself. Instinct made her shove her precious foot in the door right before it closed. Terra didn't get a good look, but that person rung a bell in her head.

"Great, so now I'm trespassing into strangers' rooms. _This_ won't get me arrested" was muttered under her breath. Even so, she still quietly opened the door and sneaked inside, then tried her best to shut it without it making an obnoxious sound.

She stiffened when the man started to talk, also in Japanese. Wasn't that just freaking useful, he probably knew she was here from the door and was telling her off or warning her that he'll call the cops. It took a minute for her to realize he was on the phone, pausing occasionally to listen to what someone else was saying. She was safe.

On the tips of her toes, Terra crept around the hotel room, trying to find a spot where she could see the person without him seeing her. She was no ninja, but thanked her luck for not hitting anything while crawling on the floor near furniture. One of the chairs hid her well, so she decided to keep behind it and wait. Finally, she got a view when the man walked to a different spot from before with the phone.

She could only see his back, but immediatly recognized the figure. Unkept black hair, a wrinkled white shirt, generic blue jeans, and just the way he held the cell phone, like it was dirty. Terra was right when she thought he was familiar at first. She had snuck into L's hotel room. She was in Death Note.

A gasp of breath came out suddenly, but was unheard since the detective was still speaking to someone. The conversation was then ended, and he closed the phone. Turning around and coming to an abrupt stop facing her direction, Terra had been spotted from behind the chair. She stood up, habitually straightened her shirt, and spoke a bit nervously. "Uh, hi."

"Hai?" L betrayed no expression.

_Shit, of course anyone would mistake that for yes in Japanese, why do the words have to sound so close? _

He then said somethiing quickly; it sounded like a question.

She tried again. "Errr, hello. What did you just say?" Terra scratched her head. L was British or something, right? He should understand English, or so she hoped. It was hard to think clearly at the moment.

"Oh." This time he understood. "Hello. I asked how you arrived in my hotel room." He sounded the same as in the English version, and suprisingly fluent.

"I, uh, you lef the door open and, well-" How would you explain this sort of situation to a nonexistant genius? "I'm lost."  
L was still as serious as ever. "Lost?" The cell phone was placed into the right front pocket of hist jeans. "Lost." Now the tone was affirmative. "You got lost and let yourself into my room."

"Yeah, that sounds about right." The way he said it made her feel as if it was the stupidest idea in the world, which couldn't exactly be denied.

The next question was to the point. "Do you know who I am?"

"Uh."_ Shit_. If she said yes, he'd immediatly lock her up in the nearest cell as Kira, but if she said no, then she wouldn't be able to explain her _situation_ without being branded as a liar and untrustful. "Am I supposed to?" Hopefully, this would buy time.  
L looked as if he was thinking about whether or not this answer satisfied him. His head turned a bit, as if to examine the hotel room. "You got lost and let yourself into a stranger's room then." He head suddenly snapped back in front of her, making Terra flinch. "Or not a stranger? The answer was too vague."

It was obvious she needed a better answer. "Well, you see, I didn't-"

Luckily, the cell phone in L's pocket started to ring. L made no hesitation in picking it up. Terra couldn't help but think that was rude, even though it saved her skin for the moment. "Watari" was the only thing understandable in the conversation. The detective rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet while discussing something with the man, although he was perfectly capable of multi-tasking, and was doing so by watching her reactions.

----

Watari called at an incovenient time, but the girl's nerves were already shattered. Perhaps a little break for her to think would get a better answer from her, or a believable excuse. He told the man on the other line about this predicament; Watari said to do what was best. Which meant L had to keep her in his sight until he found out the girl knew.

"Goodbye." A glance at her, women really could not hide their emotions. She was confused; the girl really didnt know Japanese. Problematic in the future, or perhaps useful. The girl was at a huge disadvantage. He could say anything he wanted without worrying if she'd relay it somewhere. So the possibility of a spy for Kira was immediatly reduced to a meager one percent.

"Girl." A pain this was, switching languages just to speak to one person. "You will stay with me for now." Her face lit up; so she really was lost?

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" The girl made a motion to hug him, but abruptly stopped. An inner mental conflict?

"Once was enough. You will clean this place before we go, wear gloves." A simple task that was improbable to screw up.

"Why?"

So demanding. L walked over to where he put the food tray room service brought him and opened it. Strawberry cake, one of his favorites. "To eliminate fingerprints." Telling her wouldn't kill him; Watari would come in later and clean up like always; this was just meant to keep the girl busy.

"Okay." But she still just stood there. L went through some drawers and found what he was looking for, a fork and a washcloth. He then handed it to her and sat down in a chair with his delicacy, ready to observe.

A thought came to him. "What do you think of Kira?"

----

Terra stopped in her tracks. Kira? He brought that up fast. But she didn't know what to say; she was a Kira supporter. Hesitation crept into her voice. "Oh, well, Kira is" her scrubbing got a bit harder, "he's a mass murderer that kills people who are in his way. A god complex definitely." She then remembered that she didn't have gloves like L instructed. "Gloves?"

"Yes. Drawer next to the sink." Well, wasn't _someone_ social today?

As she rummaged through the door, her back facing him, Terra slipped up ever so slightly. "He's also hot."

"Excuse me?"

Shit, did she just say that? "Nothing." She realized that was probably the worst thing a person could say in this situation. L's social skills suffered, but he wasn't stupid.

"I believe you just said Kira was hot, correct?"

No use denying it now; Terra couldn't have been in a deeper hole. "Yes I did."

"I see." He returned his attention to that cake on his lap. What was L planning? She didn't want to know actually. "We leave in thirty minutes for our next location, so please keep that in mind." He was saying she cleaning too slow. _God I want to kick him so hard right now_, Terra felt self-pity as she scrubbed the coffee table with gloves with bad friction._ A once in a lifetime opportunity, and I get to spend it as L's slave. Where's the romance? Fanfiction lied to me, the bastards_.

In twenty-eight minutes, L was checking himself out of the hotel in the lobby, while Terra struggled with his luggage cart to keep up. She couldn't help wonder why it was so heavy, but as a genius detective, there was a likely chance that the work he had to bring with him was not light in weight.

A limousine was waiting for them; Watari was on time as always. He took the cart away from her and opened the door for her. It was polite, but she felt that she was mocked somehow in the process, like she couldn't open doors herself.

All of the luggage was in the car, everyone was in and had proper seat belts on, then they were off. Watari asked L a question in Japanese.

"Kanto." The region where Kira's judgement started. They were going there right now. Terra remembered the plot of this series. This was seriously happening.

Looking to her left, she saw L pondering something and realized they had not actually been properly introduced. "I'm Terra."

The detective turned to face her, but said nothing.

"That's my name. When people tell you their name, you're supposed to respond with yours back. It's called proper manners." An irritated tone snuck into her voice, but there was no point in stopping it.

"I see then." L looked out the window once more and Terra started to make strangling notions with her hands, but he faced her again. "Hello Terra, please call me Ryuga."

**So, my first story with an OC. I hope it sounds okay so far. I wanted Terra to make a reference thinking she was in Code Geass and was looking for terrorists, but it somehow didn't make it in. Oh well. I promise that I'll try and update one of the other stories that were supposed to be updated a while ago before another chapter of this, but I said "try", not "will". Enjoy the rest of your day. :D**


	2. Tests

**Thank you Seengot (for reviewing), Brittany009 (for favouriting), NotEveryJulietNeedsARomeo (for reviewing), and Vampire Note (for reviewing and putting on alert)!!! I love you people :3**

Tests

Terra woke up and realized she was suffocating herself by facing down in her pillow. She got up, rubbed her eyes, and looked around. The sheets underneath her were mostly made; she didn't even bother with them last night after in the hotel L designated. Speaking of which, the man in the other bed was sitting in his usual position, typing something on his laptop. The sheets underneath him looked untouched.

Terra looked at the clock on the table, which to her annoyance showed that it was four in the morning. They checked in at eleven. She only got five hours of sleep, which isn't terrible, but not preferrable. It only seemed like a small amount because she was used to an average ten each night.

After straightening her shirt, and stealthily her bra, Terra looked around for something to do or food to eat. Surprisingly, there was nothing.

"Good morning Miss Terra." L didn't even look up from his screen. "If you are looking for something to do, I have a challenge I'd like you to take on."

This sounded suspicious, it was probably something to see if she was Kira or not, paranoid little sucker. "Sure, what is it?"  
"Please open the box on the kitchen counter." She looked around and saw the cardboard container, and following his instructions, went to the counter and opened it. There were puzzle pieces, mostly white with an occasional red on some. It resembled the one Near was playing with when he and Mello found out L was dead. There's a morbid comparison. "Could you do that for me?"

"You want me to put a puzzle together?" Terra let on in her tone that this was confusing and almost stupid.

"Yes. If you could, it would be more convenient if it was done by Sunday. However, I will not time you, so do not feel pressured." He still had not looked up, not changed his expression, but she could tell that the asshole was lying and most likely observe her the entire time with his death-trance look.

Terra considered not doing the task, but she was technically living off the man, so doing something seemingly harmless shouldn't be a problem for a freeloader like herself. Then there was the date. She didn't even know what day it was, but she'd bet her sanity Sunday was coming up fast. So this was a test on her abilities. If she complained, would that make her appear as Kira to him, or just an imbecile? Perhaps he'd just arrest her if she did that, using the trespassing done to his last hotel room for a reason. There didn't seem to much of an option except to just do the darn puzzle and hope that she had seven days. "Alright then."

----

L watched the girl, he was uncomfortable calling her Terra for it may be an alias, well aware that it could be considered ironic he was using one also. She did nothing unusual, just grabbing the box and dumping its contents onto her new workspace. In fact, as he watched her, she proved to be very typical when problem-solving, finding all the edges first before the inner pieces. This seemed like a very boring and fruitless experiment in the detective's view. He couldn't help but wonder what her reaction would be if he told her just how many pieces there were. Or that it was Tuesday. Furthermore, if the average teenager deposition the girl was giving off wasn't an act, a little mental hell would be good stimulation for her.

It had been four days. However, L had not spent them the way he would normally. Yes, he did solve the case about France's expert bank hacker, a very predictable one at that, as planned, but the elusive Kira was still killing. Also, the girl. She had worked almost nonstop on his jigsaw puzzle, hardly sleeping or eating. he would know, she hardly left his watch. The times she did were when using the restroom on occasion and when Watari would remove the detective from his post, forcing him to have a video conference with the NPA on Kira's latest moves or for him to get some rest, something that seemed impossible with his reputation. This had become the normal schedule for them lately.

An unusual occurrence happened on that fourth day, after Watari left the hotel for business and L had started to enjoy a box of animal crackers, nibbling the creatures' limbs delicately. He picked up a giraffe and went over some mental notes, only to be interrupted by the girl beginning a conversation with him, strange because they had not attempted one after she started the puzzle. "So, Ryuga huh?"

"Are you mocking my name?"

Her shoulders rose up and down briefly, struggling to not laugh. He did not understand what was so funny. "No, no, of course not. It's just that" a snort, "it sounds kind of fake, you know?"

Women. No wonder he never enjoyed their company, they always found the most unintelligent things hysterical. "My name is not humourous, Miss Terra."

"Is that your real name, Mr. Ryuga?" It even carried a mocking tone to match the words.

She wasn't serious.

She couldn't actually be serious.

Could she?

_He who moves first_, L remembered. "No, it is not." A sudden jerk from the girl, whose back was the only part visible to him in his chair. An unexpected play for both parties, it would require a follow-up to truly shock the girl. Then he would gauge her reaction to see if she were worthy of being a Kira suspect. "I had asked you earlier what your opinions of Kira were. Do you know why?"

---

Of course she did. But telling him that was risky. If she did, Terra would either get arrested or he'd keep her around longer, which was what she wanted, but it was only a chance. Her brain wasn't thinking quick enough, there was starting to be a pause. She was in a play for middle school once; perhaps she still carried the acting skills? Two puzzle pieces flew in the air as she suddenly turned around, a face of shock and dismay. "It can't be, you?" Something that was easily misinterpreted. Not thinking before speaking sometimes can be an admirable quality.

The detective went with it. "Yes I am."

"Am I going to die now? Like, one of those 'I can tell you, but then I have to kill you' kind of deals?"

"I believe you are assuming something strange Miss Terra." He looked mildly amused though, wondering whatever she thinking when saying that.

"Wow, I never thought I was going to meet Kira in person. You don't look like you have a god-complex." _Don't laugh, do not laugh stupid_. She put her hands to her mouth when saying that, her mouth forming an "O" for surprise. It was hard to tell if this looked fake in another person's viewpoint.

The man was disappointed, his expression returning to its blank and incomprehensible stare. "No, I am not Kira. Both you and I know this, otherwise you would not be laughing in such a situation." _Shit, he did notice_.

She suddenly straightened her back, an involuntary action for the most part, and felt an unfamiliar feeling. It creeped up from its hiding place, snaking through her skin, piercing her cheeks red. She turned around casually to that stupid puzzle and grabbed a piece and tried shoving it somewhere.

This seemed like a terrible idea at first, L would be confused for sudden change in attitude, probably blame it on the fact that she was obviously female, ditch her in the nearest jail cell like trash-

_Wait_, she thought. Her mind reeled back to that previous thing, L would be confused._ L _would be confused. L. He didn't understand women as far as the series implied, and Misa was not the best example to begin with. Perhaps this atttitude adjustment would make him wonder and therefore keep her, even if was just for a while. Buying time was usually good, if no one noticed. Terra decided to stick with it.

"Well then" attempting a calm and collected, although particularly interested voice, she asked, "if you're not Kira, who would that make you?"

She then quietly rejoiced at the minor accomplishment of finding the right spot for the puzzle piece that was previously being held.

No sound was being made behind her back, not a cough or grunt, nor even a sigh. The man's voice took her out of this blind observation. "I am L."

"Alright then. Good for you. How's that coming along?"

"You sound very disbelieving." Very calm, very careful. Typical ass, does he not know what sarcasm is?

"Oh, I believe you all right. But maybe I shouldn't?" not thinking before speaking, the next part," You are a compulsive liar after all."

A mistake. She wasn't supposed to know he lied all the time, she only "knew" him for almost a week, along with that oh so vital point that they've hardly spoken during that time due to their preoccupations. Damn puzzle. Would he notice?

"Where did you develop the idea that I was a compulsive liar?" _You know what? Screw hope with this guy around._

"I-I just assumed, you didn't tell me your real name when meeting me, we switched hotels for no reason" her voice got slightly louder and more irritated with every point, "you ask me weird questions with secret meanings, then completely ignore me when I ask why, oh, and don't even get me started on this stupid puzzle I have to-"

He cut her off. "That's enough." L's voice was unusually sharp, a tone not even used on Matsuda. "One should not criticize the other while doing the exact same. Upon trespassing into my hotel room, you only give me a first name, one that may even be an alias. You always try to see what I am doing, whether you think you're stealthy or not, it is quite obvious. You always seem to know the answers to the questions you ask, and when you start to answer one of mine, the reply is always changed midway to something completely different. Apparently, everything is also_ funny _to you, is it not?"

Did he just tell her off? He did. Holy shit.

But did that mean she had to answer that question? It would take so much explaining, and with a logical and serious detective for an audience, it would only be considered bull. There seemed to be very little options.

"Um, how about we come to a deal then?" This was no place to bargain, but it couldn't hurt to try.

"I'd prefer if you were facing me when saying such a crude thing like that if you expect to be taken seriously." Terra did as told.

"Well, since we both can agree that secrets have been kept from each other for, uh-" How many days has it been?

"Four."

"Right. Since we've been doing that, how about we start to, mmm, get to know each other better to make up for lost time by not lying so much" it couldn't be eliminated completely, or else he wouldn't agree and she'd be screwed, "and telling each other what they want to know?"

He looked as if to consider it, most likely already knowing his answer before she started talking and just stalling to mess with her. She should pat him on the back for being successful. Maybe later, after the possible show-and-tell they might participate in. Childish, but more or less fitting.

L grabbed an oddly-shaped creature from his animal cracker box, which she just noticed, observed the figure for a species, then ate it in two bites. "I dislike it when they make it impossible to see a distinctive difference as to if it's a lion or an elephant" was his only comment before chewing. He then decided to make up his mind. "I agree to these terms for the moment."

She sighed a bit of relief, but an awkward pause seeped in immediately after. They just sat there, L in a comfy but unsanitary reading chair with his box of crackers, and Terra in the kitchen stool that had a matching counter top, trembling slightly in uneasiness.

He realized she didn't get what he meant. "I had just told you I was L. I believe it's your turn to share."

"Oh." She impulsively dragged her fingers through her hair, which were discovered to be tangled and knotted. "I really did end up in your hotel room on accident, I swear. I was lost on a bus and didn't know where I was going, so I figured 'Hey, might as well walk around, maybe I'd be lucky and run into a terrorist!'" She threw her hands up in the air. "Woo! Wasn't that just a fun experience? Well, back to the story. So it started getting dark and I panicked, so I ran into the nearest building, which was that hotel.

Uh, I didn't really want to get caught as some street kid, so I started walking around the halls and I saw you and thought 'Don't I know this guy?' So I sort of snuck in your room, to you know-"

"Make sure you had the right person before stalking them?"

"Pretty much. Now here we are, ta dah! Your turn."

---

This went on for two hours, exchanging minor information between each other, mostly about their behaviour in the last four days. Both were very careful as to what was said still, but it was progress. L was partially glad that he did not have to force her into an interrogation room for this. She was still a woman after all; he did know some ethics.

the girl did try to convince him she gave him her real first name upon meeting him, which was an act so stupid and naive he could actually believe her. She gave him her last name too:

Thompson. Terra Thompson.

It was strange, especially how her initials also were the same like his were, but somehow had that feeling to it, that it was the truth. An almost reassuring thought, now that he could have Watari look her up for background information.

He did not reveal his own name though, due to personal reasons, and although a lack of trust was shown on her face, she let him. It was almost shocking that all the girl did was say that it was perfectly understandable and did not pursue it further. How it was understandable was something she did not reveal also, nor why she was lost on a bus in a foreign country to begin with. He let that "drop", considering some things were better off secret.

Their conversation ended shortly after that and she continued with renewed zeal and frustration on her puzzle while he scheduled various things with the police. It was an issue that they would no longer trust him without knowing his face; using the FBI may have been a complete mistake if it were not for Kira's slip with the order of killing them. Either way, he was going to have an official meeting with whoever was left, which made him wonder what to do with the gir- Terra. What to do with Terra.

Remembering she was still in the same room, he scooted over silently to the kitchen area and leveled his nose to the edge of the counter. She was sleeping face-first on the puzzle, his test for her to see if she was Kira. Now it had seemed like a waste of time, considering how fluently the killer was moving despite this girl being subject to constant observation.

He silently lifted up his chin onto the counter top and lifted her head off of his challenge, slowly so that pieces didn't come off the table as well. Her face was imprinted with their marks, it was almost comical. But that was not the point. Observing, only half the puzzle was completed, with all of the red parts connected, which was expected since it was the easiest of the almost completely white pieces. The word it spelled was large, with the same font as he used for his initial, giving an emphasis; Kira was blared across that unfinished canvas, the true nature of the test not even subtle with its violent color.

He then checked for the time, only to see that it was indeed one in the morning like he expected and also Sunday.

She had failed.

She was not Kira.

The game of cat and mouse was not over, hardly even begun, with many more lives to be sacrificed in the process.

It was going to be a long day for the detective.

He could tell that when Terra woke hours later, she couldn't figure out why she was in her bed. Still wearing the same clothes, but in her bed. He would have to solve the dressing problem before he, or they, met with the police, but they had time.

She thrashed a bit, sat up suddenly with a stunned look on her face, and checked her surroundings as if they had an explanation for her change in location. After that, the girl ran to the kitchen to return to that duty that sleeping robbed her of, only to gasp stupidly.

It was amazing how easy her body language was to read.

"It's gone L!" She seemed comfortable using that initial instead of Ryuga, almost too comfortable.

"Yes it is Miss Terra."

"Why?" she whined.

"It is Sunday." He continued eating his ice cream topped with strawberries without batting an eye at her.

"But you said that you only _preferred_ that I got it done by then!"

"There has been a change in plans. We will switch hotels this morning then Watari will take you shopping to get more" he looked distastefully at her wrinkled outfit, "wearable attire. We have guests tomorrow."

"The task force?" Immediately after saying that, she smacked herself in the head, reason unknown.

"Yes. I'm surprised you heard some of that conversation through your snoring."

"Yeah, yeah, I did. Sure. Thanks for caring about how I look by the way." He heard her murmur something and roll her eyes, a eighty percent chance it was about his own wardrobe. That childish urge to point out that at least he was wearing clean clothes was suppressed.

"Oh! Oh!" was the next thing out of the girl's mouth.

"What is it?"

"I forgot yesterday, but can I ask you a favour?"

"You just did."

"_Another_ favour then."

"You just-"

"I _know_. I'm asking anyway." She was a bit annoyed, though it was entertaining.

"Well at the rate you keep asking for favours, I'm interested as to how you are going to pay me back." He wasn't that serious, but just in case.

"Can I get called by my initial too for the police? T. I think it'd be really cool."

He paused, utterly stunned for what was to him a long time. She shifted her feet a bit with an excited but also anxious glance. "Miss Terra?"

"Ye-es?"

"You're an idiot."

**I lived through finishing this in one day! Wooooooo! I'm sorry this update took way longer than expected. I reached a dead end and had to start over from a certain point, then my history teacher decided to be a bit- Not the point. The point is that I finally renewed my vigor from the first chapter and did this. Yay. I'll see you people in six months when I bother updating again. I kid. Give me two. XD**

**I had a really hard time coming up with Terra's last name, I'll admit. I ended up flipping through a yearbook and seeing what would sound nice. I couldn't decide between Thompson and Sutter, so I had to call Seengot to make her pick whether or not the initials should match. She said "No", so until the last minute, I went with Sutter. Then I decided I didn't like it as much. :D Don't we all have those moments.**

**Until the next update, please put up with me! Thank you very much!**


	3. Trust

**Thank you 5FIVE5 (for favoriting, putting on alert, and reviewing)! Now we begin the chapter.**

Trust

As soon as Watari dropped Terra off with her new clothes and a stomach full of actual nutrition instead of sugar, she and L got in an argument. She knew they would, the man was just emitting waves of stress from the awaited meeting with the task force tomorrow and they've had several in such a short time. She also decided to be a stubborn bitch and ask to be addressed as "T" again, for purely professional reasons she told him. "I'm just trying to take Kira seriously, and how can I if he knows my name and could easily kill me?"

"You are not in any danger Miss Terra for you are not working on this case." That was always his response.

"Why not?" She didn't see the point in asking continuously, but did anyway, like a broken record.

"Your intelligence is far below his or mine, and I'm in no mood to deal with a nuisance."

"I'm more useful than those cops."

"They also know how to work firearms if necessary and have a position to be taken seriously-"

"Not for long." Getting heated up like this, she kept spilling minor spoilers to the detective such as that.

Of course, L didn't see the future, so he thought she was just saying they were incompetent. "I do not see why you think this about the police. It will be better when you observe our meeting tomorrow, then you will understand that you are better suited for the sidelines."

"By sidelines you mean shutting my mouth, wearing an apron, and cooking you people dinner while you play CSI? I don't think so." It really pissed her off how sexist Death Note really was once you were actually in it.

"We are not playing games, Miss Terra. Also, I don't think a child like you even knows how to use an oven." L was obviously irritated, sick of this verbal battle and her stinginess.

"Why can't you trust me? You haven't bothered once to ask if I could be of some help to this case. If you'd just let me, Kira could easily be-"

"Kira will not easily be anything. He is a mass murderer with an intellect that is far above most of the Japanese government."_ He won't even admit it's equal to his_, she thought. "One girl will not determine the outcome of this battle."

"Pssh." This had always been the point where she gave up and lost, still frightened that the detective would demand an explanation if she told him one could. At the same time, she herself didn't quite believe that her sudden appearance could do much to the plot either.

Feeling like a sore loser, she sulked on her temporary bed, still unmade since none of the police would see it when they visited anyway; this new hotel they were in had the bedrooms farther away from the kitchen area than the other two, either Watari or L had set it up to give a good impression. She wrapped herself up in the blanket so that only her face was visible and faced away from L, who was indulging himself in a pre-meeting snack.

Whoever said getting stuck in anime was fun_ lied_. Dirty liars, Terra punched her pillow briefly to hint to the other man who was undoubtedly still watching her out of the corner of his eye that she was upset, mostly at him.

He was not impressed. "Miss Terra, if you're going to burrow yourself in your bedsheets over my not consenting you to go by such an obvious alias, you are definitely not fit for the work of the Kira case."

She turned to face him and flopped her wrapped body onto the older mattress, pouting her lip at him for a last effort.

"That is a pathetic attempt for sympathy and I am not falling for it."

"How about seduction?"

"Excuse me?"

Terra snorted and sat up. "You're right, an antisocial detective like you wouldn't know what that is."

His eyes narrowed. "A high school girl-"

"_College._"

"Doesn't make much of a difference. A college girl, especially one of your personality, would hardly ever have had a taste on how to seduce someone, whereas someone of my age would have had more than a share of it."

"You're bluffing."

"Prove it."

Silence. She couldn't. "Well _sorry_ for having a sense of _humour_, something foreign to a super-genius detective like you."

"Actually, us geniuses do have a sense of _humour_, and one quite above your level of comprehension at that."

She didn't make a sharp comment back, being unable to think of one and too tired from the day. "So, why'd I have to get a fancy dress again?" Watari had specified one was needed when they were nearing that section after getting lost looking for reasonable socks.

_"Look, lingerie! Imagine if the detective saw I got this." A smirks played on her face as she held it up._

_"Miss Terra, Master Ryuzaki specifically told me to only assist you in getting the basic attire and to prevent you from getting anything.... distracting."_

Good times. Unfortunately, her reminiscing caused her to forgot the question she asked, and so was shocked when L decided to answer. "You are supposed to make a good first impression when the police arrive tomorrow to discuss the case, even more so due to your hatred towards these strangers."

"'First impression?' Where'd you get that idea, an etiquette manual?" Terra started to pick at her nails, snickering under her breath just loud enough to be heard.

"No comment. I will also participate if that satisfies you, Watari will be back tomorrow morning with your dress and my suit from the dry cleaner's-"

"A suit?"

"A suit."

"Seriously?"

"Did I sound as if I was lying, Miss Terra?"

"Well since it's you we're talking about, well-"

"Go take a shower and express disbelief somewhere else. You're dirty." An immediate response, he looked down in the middle of saying so towards his laptop, which had been turned on sometime in the middle of the conversation. An odd pecking noise came from his direction; his odd interpretation of typing.

"Do I get to be called T?"

"_Now_."

She grabbed some clean clothes from one of the shopping bags and stormed into the bathroom, slammed the door, threw the clothes on the floor, started the water, and then decided to open the door again briefly. "I'm a _bath_ person you know!"

---

That girl was so stressful, just another annoyance to disturb L from the case at hand. However, he was glad to finally hear the water stop running so that he could have some peace to think. There had to be a way that Kira slipped up when killing those FBI agents, but what? He could dictate their actions before death; it was hard telling what was done intentionally to confuse the detective and what was merely accident.

The order the agents received the files for instance. Raye Penbar's was the most suspicious, so Kira had to have been one he probed. Or was he? Perhaps it was just a bait and switch to make L waste time by studying who Raye stalked. Both were equally possibly, although there was a four-percent chance he was over analyzing.

The cell phone next to him rang. Then again. And again. He just was staring at it, wondering who would interrupt his thoughts at this time of night. It had just started to go to voice message when he suddenly flipped the device open and spoke. "Hello?"

"Yes, L, there's been a change in plans."

Listening intently and jotting down mental notes, the situation had sudden turn, which came as a pain to the detective. He didn't even hear the tub drain and Terra opening the door, didn't notice her presence until her dripping wet hair was wetting his face as she tried to eavesdrop.

"What's going on?"

"Shush, I'm on the phone." He pushed her face away with his unoccupied palm, then wiped it on his pants. After hanging up, he told her. "The police are coming here tonight."

"What?" She had sounded genuinely shocked, then suddenly had an understanding look on her face, peculiar, but had to be ignored for the time being. "Oh, but what about your suit?"

"Right." He had forgotten about it.

"First impressions don't mean much." She whispered, suddenly close to him again, her hand cupped to his ear. Didn't she know what personal space was, or was this the seduction she was speaking about? "Trust me."

---

It was hard to pretend to be busy with detective-like work while trying not to stand out as L had said, Terra found out. She didn't even know what she was supposed to be doing that had something to do with Kira. Heck, if she remembered to buy a sketchpad, she could draw a profile of the culprit, but not even that was possible at the moment. Sitting down in a chair, she started to watch what L was doing, staring out of the window at the city lights and thinking deeply about something. This is what the police caught them doing when walking in.

L turned casually around and walked over to them as expected, then introduced himself. Was she supposed to follow? "I'm L." he had said, then listened somewhat uninterested to their greetings.

Time for the fun part, she giggled a bit hysterically at the idea of getting to see it happen in front of her.

"_Bang_."

"What the-?"

"I was Kira, you'd be dead, Mr. Yagami." His eyes were still as cold and uncaring as usual, and Terra mimicked that along with whispering those words. As to why he said it in English, however, she had no idea. Maybe he forgot that he was speaking with people who actually knew Japanese? She doubted it.

They spoke a little while before walking over to the coffee table where the guests finally noticed her sitting awkwardly in the chair, trying to wake her foot that had just fell asleep. One of the police, she couldn't remember his name, said something to L in his main language, probably wondering who she was.

The man gestured to her and started to say something. It was a real pain not knowing a shitty word these people were saying. But then she caught something in the sentence; he was addressing her, and she could've sworn he said "T".

Terra beamed and stood up.

---

"Excuse me, L?" Aizawa asked the detective, pointing curiously. "Who is that? You didn't say something about another person coming."

He turned to look and saw he was talking about Terra, who was hitting her foot repeatedly for some unknown reason. "Oh. Her." Saying the third of seventeen things that came to him in that second, he gestured and hoped she'd notice and quit making a fool of herself. "That is my assistant, T. She's a newer detective from America assisting me on the Kira case, although she lacks the knowledge about our culture and language, having never left her own country before." It was lengthy and much improvised, but the police looked to believe it and he wouldn't have to worry later about explaining why she only spoke English.

"Oh" the one who introduced himself as Matsuda said, "I didn't know you took in interns! That's so cool!" He missed the point of "assistant helping with Kira case", but L was in no mood to correct the man.

The girl seemed to realize she was being spoken about and stood up to introduce herself. It was difficult for her to decide how to greet them, but Soichiro decided to help and held out his hand to shake. The rest caught on and it went moderately smoothly, although L noted to himself to teach her how to greet someone later. Also, he'd have to correct her on why he chose to address her as T, or else she'd might get a different impression on their relationship.

Everyone sat down around the coffee table and began discussing the case, with L translating every so often to keep the facade that Terra was supposed to know what was going on. She kept giving him disturbing smiles whenever he looked.

Watari eventually showed up with the materials, and they started watching the survelliance tapes of the FBI agents that had died. It was only the second time they had run through Raye Penbar's when T suddenly poked the screen and said "Look at his envelope."

L peered at the man's hands and saw what she meant. How did she notice that detail so fast? It would have taken him another run of the tape to have seen it. "Yes" he switched to Japanese, "it was left on the subway."

"Was he contacting with Kira?"

"He did act strange when dying."

"You don't think Kira actually was _there_, right?"

They all started talking at once, it was giving him a headache. "It's a possibility of five percent." That'd shut them up for a minute, throwing out a random percentage.

The evening ended very late, with an agreement that they would probe further into Raye Penbar's suspects. Soichiro was a bit unnerved by that, his family was one of them, but agreed. Details would be arranged later; all L wanted to do now was devour the cheesecake Watari had left in the refrigerator and ignore the girl. For once, she was cooperating, likely since he explained the concept that she had to pretend to be his assistant in front of the police for now and that she could indeed be called T.

"I knew you'd understand!" she had almost hugged him, but his impulse at her sudden movement ended with his foot connecting with her face, then she rolling around on the floor being an idiot and whining about the pain. He had hardly kicked her, so it was just a cry for attention. Later, Terra had settled down when she discovered the hotel room provided notepads and pens, quietly doodling something while lying in her bed.

He was about to indulge himself in a particularly delightful-looking piece of cake when the cell phone rang._ Not again_, he thought and set his fork down to pick it up.

---

As the NPA were leaving the hotel as inconspicuously as possible, the same topic was on their minds: Who was that T person?

"Do you think L was lying when he told us she was his assistant?" one questioned.

"We were told to address him as Ryuzaki." Soichiro said sternly.

Ukita muttered "Seemed pretty fake to me, how can she go to a country and not know their language?"

"Maybe it's his secret mistress and we caught them by accident." Matsuda smiled evilly.

"Where was your mind entire time?"

"Oh shut up, I'm probably right."

"Like hell you are."

Soichiro stopped the argument between the two men. "That's enough. L is a superior detective that is helping us stop a madman and would not have an assistant if they were not of some help, even if she lacks in some skills. And I didn't notice any of you pointing out useful details during the meeting, now did I?"

"No, sir." They felt as if they were just scolded by their mothers or something.

"Good. We need to trust them right now, or else Kira will continue killing." The man departed from the rest of the group and headed home, unknowingly to spend time with the mass murderer himself.

---

L couldn't believe what he was just told. It was so soon after the agents' deaths, and now this? Raye Penbar was definitely a link, and his fiance was just-

No, he couldn't stand thinking about it. Staring out the window was of no help at all either, just a nuisance that kept him from jumping off the building right then. He just lost a valuable source of information that could've helped corner Kira, but the psycho beat him to it. If only he'd acted sooner.

L snapped the phone shut with more effort than needed and banged on the glass. Turning around, he was face to face with Terra, who was solemn. At least she understood enough that he was upset and didn't need her chattering away about something.

"Bad phone call?" she asked.

"A minor setback on the case. None of your business."

"I see." She did not move away however, just remained standing looking at him. "Why don't you want to tell me?"

He was not in the mood for this. "I said it was only a minor setback, you don't need to know everything."

"Naomi Misora went missing, didn't she?"

**Finally finished. I'm spared from my friend's wrath for a few days, woo. Hopefully the next chapter will get done this weekend, but no promises. Sorry for my bad attempt at humour.  
**


	4. Tricks

**Thanks a whole bunch XxFallingxxAngelxX (for favouriting), 5FIVE5 (for reviewing), Volcanic Monsoon (for favouriting)**

Tricks

L couldn't help but wonder how this girl was so stupid most of the time, then suddenly perform an act of great intelligence as if it were a natural occurrence. She didn't even seem to notice them. He, on the other hand, was disturbed by such a switch in character; it was downright unnatural. For example, how she knew that Raye Penbar's fiance went missing without him telling her so. Too peculiar of an act to be simply ignored.

"I was just eavesdropping on your phone conversation!" the girl had whined when he shuffled close enough to shatter her personal bubble and force her to stare into the pure black eyes outlined with bags from lack of sleep.

"Impossible Miss Terra, for the volume was too low to hear from a distance of two feet, and you were lounging vulgarly on my chair an approximate distance of seven point three feet away."

"I thought you people used the metric system over here. Wouldn't it be metres?" The stupidity again, perhaps he should just tell her to stick with the eerie

"It is, I'm just using your system of measurement to help you_ understand _that you were too far away to eavesdrop, therefore deeming your alibi not plausible."

"Stop using big words, you asshole!" He watched her stomp her feet and wave her hands with exagerrated motion, then point at him and continue speaking, interrupting his thought. "And why should I need a good reason? You never give me one when you do something, and I said already that I wanted to help on the case. Her death could've been prevented if you ju-"

His eyes widened slightly. "Death? Miss Terra, I only said Naomi Misora went missing. For what reason would you have concluded that she is deceased?"

This seemed to get a reaction out of the girl, and she became suddenly nervous. "Oh, uh, well,_ obviously _Kira killed the FBI agents, like you said at the meeting, and so he probably thought that she knew something as well, maybe even something really bad that could ruin him, so he offed her to make sure. Duh." There was more to that, he could tell just by the way she was acting, but it did make sense, although he had already came to that conclusion, so he decided not to probe further.

"Very well" L said, "your answer is satisfying enough for now." Several possibilities ran through his head before he chose to speak again. "As a matter of fact" he bit softly on his thumb, pacing the words so she would squirm wondering what he'd do next, "it's been very crude of me to not take you up on that offer. Tomorrow, we're going to be doing some investigating, and I would prefer if you used these skills you say that can help to aid it."

Thrill emitted from the girl. "You mean it? Oh, yay! About time, I'll show you that I'm the best assistant ever, thank you, thank you! Group hug!" Terra ran towards him in unusually fast and messed up way that it put the detective in a state of petrified shock, allowing the girl to attempt to wrap her arms around him and squeeze. She stopped when he gave no response and she noticed his blank face and his flinching. "Hello?" Terra's hand moved upwards then downwards in front of his face, triggering not even a blink. "Holy shit, I broke him."

----

Terra couldn't sleep well that night, and for once it wasn't because of the constant watching or the pecking noise made when L typed on his laptop. No, it was adrenaline keeping her up with the many possibilities of what tomorrow would hold and the chances to use knowledge from the anime to prove she was a good detective. Scenarios whizzed through her head of doing something spectacular and being recognized.

_"Look L, after checking Yagami's son's computer, his web history shows he has been hacking into the police system!"_

_"Wow" he said, "I would have never guessed that Kira would've made such a stupid mistake. Good thing you pointed that out, now we can arrest him."_

_Two cops came into the room and put Light in handcuffs. "Damn it!" the culprit said, "I should've never underestimated you, female! Now I have to serve a life in prison and repent my actions and get prison tattoos." His head went down in shame, then back up at her. "But remember, I don't regret a single bit of it, otherwise I would have never got to see such a cute detective's assistant. If only I had told you my feelings before." He approached her and kissed her hand sweetly._

_"It is a shame Light, I had always thought you were attractive as well, but our love is not meant to be now that I am working with a world-famous detective."_

_L placed his arm around her awkwardly. "That's right Kira, you can't have her. She chose to be with me in the end, because it is justice."_

_"Drats! I won't forget you Terra, come visit me soon!" Light was dragged away by the police._

_"Now that we're alone again." She smiled shyly at the older man._

"Miss Terra."

_"Yes, now that we are, I would like permission to put you in an embrace with myself." His other arm went around her, and their faces suddenly were close._

_"Oh, L" She said, looking up at his face._

_"Terra."_

_"Kiss me if you would, Mr. Detective."_

"Miss Terra."

_"Oh, aren't you in a hurry? Don't be so frisky, or I'll have to hancuff us together so you won't be doing this with other men."_

_Their lips started getting closer together, closing the distance, then the sweet passion they've been dreaming of, though his lips were rougher than expected-_

"Miss Terra." His voice seemed even more impatient now.

She lifted her face up from her pillow and glared at the man. "What do you want? I was having a nice dream."

"It was annoying hearing you say such vulgar things in your sleep and then have to watch you make out with a hotel pillow."

"Oh, that's what it was?" She looked down and saw the wet spot where her face was just moments before. "Well, that'd explain a lot." She got out of bed and started searching through her bag for clothes.

"Are you not concerned as to what I heard?" His look was as hard to decipher as ever.

"Not really" she shrugged. "Hey, I was having a good time. I'm more concerned about the fact that you were watching the whole time. What, was that a good three hour sleep I got in? Bit pedophobic if you ask me." She grabbed a shirt and some pants then walked to the bathroom to change. "The pillow was a good kisser too, in case you want a shot, although it's a very _particular_ lover."

L was still not amused. That guy needed to beaten over the head with the Stick of Good Humour. And soon too, she couldn't bear spending all her time around an antisocial, scowl-faced person.

After dressing herself, quickly brushing her hair, and putting on a pair of shoes, she asked "So, what are we doing?"  
"Supervising the installation of cameras being placed in the Yagami household." She should really start timing how long it takes him to think of a response and then answer; he has to have beaten the Guinness record by 868532.295729524 seconds.

"Aw, that sounds boring. I thought we were going to do something exciting and dangerous. What's there to supervise?"

"We need to tell the installers where the best place to put a camera is."

"Whoop-de-freaking-doo." She twirled her finger.

L ignored her comment and packed up his laptop, then handed it to Watari, who had been silently listening to their conversation. "Miss Terra, this is the Yagami household. Someone in that house may be the mass murderer Kira. If I am correct" this next part seemed to be speaking out loud to himself more than speaking to her, "things will get_ very _interesting."

By the time the car, a limo would be too suspicious, arrived at the house, people were already at work. One greeted them and they walked inside, receiving glances doing so. Was it because of how L stood out? Maybe she shouldn't have worn black.

She was hardly in the door when L was telling which cameras should go in the kitchen. Watari apparently left to instruct some workers about the hallway cameras, and Terra just stood there feeling out of place. She followed L around until he told her to go do something more productive with her time, which made her remember where she was.

Light's house.

_Light Yagami's _house.

Freaking hot Kira's _house_.

She had to keep herself from squealing. She started walking around touching everything: this was his chair he sat in during meals, that was the carpet he walks on, these are the stairs he climbs every day to get to his room. Then finding herself touching it, the door handle to his room.

"Hey" a man holding a very heavy-looking piece of equipment said, "you shouldn't be touchin' that."

"Why not?"

"Look at the piece of paper in the doorway, the person checks his room." The man spoke English, there was a relief.

She looked, and there it was, just like in the manga.

"He's right." Terra jumped up, having not heard L approach and get behind her. "Let's go inside." He reached out past her and grabbed the door handle, was about to turn it.

"Wait!"

"Yes, T?" His face was blatant enough to tell he still wasn't used to calling her that.

"Um, the paper's a red herring." She walked over the the other end of the door and pulled a piece of pencil lead from the hinges. "See?"

"Who would'a guessed." the worker was impressed, at least. Not like she had expected anything from L.

The three of them entered the room and she and L looked around while the worker did his job, setting up a camera in the air vent of Light's room.

"Nothing too unusual." L stated, almost disappointed by his tone.

"Or is it?" She smiled an looked at him. "Dun, dun, dun."

No response.

"Fine, I'll show you." She walked over to the desk with an air of confidence and grabbed a pen, twisting it to get the cartridge out.

"Show me what, T?" His head was mere inches above her shoulder, watching with those eyes.

She then opened the first drawer on the right. "This!"

He looked inside. "I believe that's a diary."

She handed it to him, who scanned it absent-mindedly for a brief second before setting it down on the desk next to the dissected pen. He watched as she got on her knees and stuck the cartridge in something and the bottom of the drawer popped up. She handed him it, smiling.

"Well?"

"Light Yagami has a secret compartment to his drawer."

"Yeah, with the murde-" She looked down and saw only the explosives the drawer was hooked up to, and a blank space where the Death Note should have been. "Shoot. He took it with him."

"Took it with him, it being?"

"The, uh, murder weapon."

"The murder weapon?"

"The murder weapon."

L bit his thumb. "I see. How did you know the murder weapon was stored here?"

"Oh." How did she? "I, uh, saw him make this."

"You did?"

This was not going well. "Yeah, I sort of knew him, kind of."

"I see." He left it at that. Instead, the detective called Watari to remove the explosives from Light's drawer.

"Why? He'll know we were here if you do."

"Exactly. If what you say is true and he has the weapon with him, he'll use it before putting it away, therefore showing us on camera." It was genius. She nodded, stupefied for not coming up with a clever solution like that.

Nothing else hidden was found in the bedroom, so they moved onto the next room. The rest of the morning passed like that, with no more surprises and Terra finding herself useless again. Once the installation of the cameras was done, she replaced the lead back into its spot along with the paper.

The detective said nothing in the car, just staring out the window like a child after going somewhere with his parents. She refused to be dampened by his eerie calm, and was excited at the prospect of finally seeing the main character on camera, all sixty-four of them.

This was going to be a fun next few days.

---

Light Yagami returned home from school, unaware of being watched. He walked up the stairs, even grabbed the door handle and turned it up as usual, before noticing something strange. It wouldn't go up any higher. He glanced quickly at the paper, which was still in the door, then at the lead, also in the door. Very strange indeed.

He walked inside and set down his backpack on his bed.

"Let's play Mario Golf" Ryuk said, smiling as usual.

Just to make sure, he then checked the top drawer of his desk. The diary was in its place, but the bottom looked a bit shifted. If he was correct, something must no longer be holding the bottom up. For example, a bag of explosives.

Light ignored him and grabbed his jacket, then left his room, replaced the paper, and went outside.

"What's wrong Light?"

"I need you to check my room" Light stared intently at the shinigami. "I think there may be cameras in it."

"Why?" It sounded paranoid in Ryuk's point of view.

"My door handle was not in the position I left it in, but everything else was. Also, the drawer was messed with." He smiled a little bit. "A challenge, huh? You thought I wouldn't notice until it was too late, didn't you L?"

_Didn't you?_

**I can't believe I actually fulfilled my promise and finished this chapter before the weekend was over. It's only Sunday, yessss. Actually, thank 5FIVE5 for updating her story, Death Sentence, otherwise I probably wouldn't have felt competitive to update myself.**

**I can't help but wonder if the beginning was a bit overboard, with the dream and starting a second straight chapter with an argument. Oh well, it was fun to write. Until my next update, ciao.**


	5. Trouble

**Thanks 5FIVE5 (for reviewing) and Llian (for favouriting and putting on alert)!**

**I hope no one noticed, but I accidentally skipped a sentence in the last chapter. It's not that major and I have no idea how to edit posted chapters (ha ha), so it'll just stay like that for now.**

Trouble

There was nothing suspicious being recorded with the cameras nor the bugs installed into either household, much to Soichiro Yagami's relief, L's disappointment, and Terra's utter annoyance._ How was that possible? _she would speak to herself, pacing the monitoring room. She had actually pointed out Light's tricks to the detective and the workers setting everything up. The explosives in the secret compartment of his drawer, the pencil lead in the door, and the door handle-

The door handle. He always adjusted the handle so it was slightly lower than the place it returns to when you use it. Did she seriously forget such a detail that made her want to have the same handle on her own room? She did.

"I'm such a moron" she said, suddenly laughing and twirling around. This made her receive a disturbed glance from all the police in the room, not to mention the famous death-trance glare from her favourite detective. Perhaps if he showed a little more emotion, she'd be on the floor getting strangled right now.

Luckily, this was not the case and she was permitted to live for the time being.

The next two weeks was the same, with Kira still killing and Light acting all innocent. L eventually gave in after much pestering from the middle-aged cop and had all the cameras and bugs removed. He already had a different plan ready, one that Terra was elated to support.

"Oh, this is so exciting, we're going to get him this time, I'm sure of it!"

"Miss Terra."

"This'll be awesome, I always loved this part. College! Genius detective Hideki Ryuga is going to college!"

"Miss Terra."

"It's hilarious! I'm hysterical. Man I want to come really bad, can I? I'll be good, I promise. I won't say anything you don't tell me to-"

"_Miss Terra_." He kicked her chair over, silencing the girl by letting her face get rammed into the carpet.

"Wha~at?" She sat up and rubbed her cheek. "You asshole, don't kick a lady!"

He sipped some tea with sugar cubes floating on the surface. "The way you act tells me you are not a lady, therefore giving me permission to quiet you with force." He watched without interest Watari helping her up, then continued. "You are not coming. That is my final answer."

"You also said I wasn't going to get called T, final answer."

"That was because the original set up did not go according to plan-"

"Does it ever?" She righted the chair, but then decided she didn't feel like getting off the floor, and flipped the chair over so it was sideways. Afterward, she sat in it and smiled at L. She wondered if he could suppress twitching. Perhaps she'd ask later.

"Yes, seventy-eight percent of the time it does, taking in all of the factors. However, I never considered that your appearance would be a very consistent factor on the twenty-two percent that does not go according to plan."

She quickly righted herself. "Hey, I don't speak fancy math percents like you do, but I'm sure as hell that was an insult. Apologize."

Instead, the detective merely grabbed a duffel bag that was previously packed with tennis supplies and motioned to Watari, then walked out of the door. "We will back this afternoon. Don't break anything." Without even a goodbye or gesture, the two left Terra there in the hotel, standing with a chair tipped over by her feet and a rug burn mark on her face, feeling something beyond the idea of being left out. Complete and utter isolation.

"Well_ fine_" she yelled at the door, "I'll just play CSI by myself then!" Quiet immediately settled in the room afterword, so she chose to yell again, knowing that L wouldn't hear but at the same time wishing he would. "You suck at it by the way, otherwise you wouldn't have died! And my friends _wondered_ why I'm a Kira supporter!"

She closed the door and dragged her feet to the couch to watch television. After flipping through a couple channels did she remember that she was in Japan, and that none of it was in English.

With a huff of her breath, Terra let her eyes wander around the room, which eventually settled on L's abandoned laptop._ This could be interesting_. A wicked smile crept onto her face and she rolled herself off the couch and crawled to his chair like that one girl from The Grudge, merely to stifle boredom.

Waiting patiently for it to start up, she glanced out the peculiarly large window at the city lights. It was amazing how many were visible even though it was daytime. They were beautiful in an urban, man-made sort of way, she decided. The laptop made a click noise and then the log on screen appeared.

She first concerned herself with the one that was labelled "L", ignoring the other icons. A password screen showed up. "Shit, of course he'd have one, the super genius probably knew I was going to disturb his privacy or something." She clicked on the question mark next to the empty box and a password hint showed up.

Hint: _One of many_

What the heck was that supposed to mean? She did not know, so she started the process of guess and check. "How about Near, no? Mello then. Wrong again, hmm, Matt? Nope." She paused, fingers anxiously hovering over the keyboard._ It had to be something he wouldn't expect me to know_. She tried again, using a phrase instead. "Light Yagami is Kira."

The computer beeped. Denied.

"Shut up." She was running out of ideas. "Terra Thompson is Kira."

Beep.

"Ah, I know! Sweets are 99.9999 percent of my food intake." However, this time she couldn't press enter. The bottom of the screen told her why.

_You have reached the maximum amount of attempts at logging in. Please try again in a half hour._

"Screw you then, stupid password thing." Terra then pushed the back button and looked at the other accounts. There were several Japanese words that she didn't understand, then in plain English, one was titled "Miss Terra". A T was the icon. She clicked on it and it logged on, password-free.

It was a relatively blank screen aside from a few shortcuts on the left side of the desktop background and a Word document shortcut in the middle of the screen that had a title saying "Please Read". Seeing no harm in it, she opened the file, which turned out to be a letter addressed to her. There was no need to scroll down to see who it was from.

_Dear Miss Terra Thompson,_

_Reading this, you now know that I'm aware you were trespassing into my laptop while I was gone. When I return from To-Oh tonight, you may deny reading this, however keep in mind that the computer records how many failed attempts at logging in to my account from the past twenty-four hours. Needless to say, I never forget or misspell my password. No, I am not one of premonition, I am just well aware of your obvious thought process. Please stop swearing in your head and let me continue._

"He's good." She bit her lip in frustration, feeling as if she was being scolded like a puppy in person by the man.

_This account is for your use when you ask_ permission_, if that word is comprehensible to you. I highly suggest deleting this file once you are done reading it and creating a password for your account, in case this would fall into the wrong hands. _

_Tomorrow or the day after, you will meet with the main suspect if he proves to react similarly to Kira. You will be bugged in case he lowers his guard and reveals information that will be useful to the investigation. For now until I get back, attempt to practice your acting and charm. Don't get anything off of pay-per-view either._

_-L_

After doing as told, she logged off, seeing no reason to be on the internet if she couldn't check her email, and tried to get on L's account again. With no success after two more attempts, which made it seven in all, she wanted to give up. However, she realized one must think like L. He wouldn't want her to guess it no matter what, so it had to be something he alone knew. _One of many_, she could've sworn she heard that before, but what was it talking about?

Terra banged her head against the side of the chair repeatedly. Death Note was not for her, heck, even when she was watching the darn thing and every possible detail and trick was spelt out, she managed to get confused. How on earth was she supposed to figure out the super detective L's pass-

L. That was one of the names he went by, one of the _many_ names. His others included:

"L-A-W-L-I-E-T" She said while typing it in. The computer made a satisfactory noise and logged in. The screen was suddenly overflowing with icons scattered all over the background. "Interesting indeed."

---

The detective was exhausted after spending the day with Light, observing the younger man while playing a harmless game of tennis, then testing his reasoning in the cafe. Now he had a five percent chance that he was Kira, exceeding all the other suspects just as he thought. It was certainly a productive day.

However, L had left that girl at the hotel in a bad mood and would most likely spit something at him if he shared his findings immediately, so he pretended nothing of interest had happened and came into the room with a blank face, which turned from pretend to real when he saw Terra sprawled on the couch watching Saw III on pay-per-view. Some idiot woman was screaming on the television, masking his footsteps when approaching.

Unintentionally, he made his way behind the couch without being noticed, and scared the girl into the afterlife when commenting on the woman's behaviour.

"Holy shit!" She tumbled off the couch and onto the floor. "When the L did you get there?"

"That was a horrible pun." He calmly reached behind one of the pillows and retrieved an unopened bag of butter scotches.

She scowled. "Well, fine then" hesitation, thinking about something, then turned to the television briefly, "I guess I was caught, huh?"

What a tiring woman. "Yes, caught doing the very thing I told you not to. Now what will you do?" _She had read the letter, otherwise she wouldn't have known she would be caught. Why was she watching a Japanese movie anyway? It was well-timed with me coming back, she must have done this on purpose to annoy me. How predictable, I wonder when she will do something peculiar again, it may help come up with an explanation for her knowledge of Misora's disappearance_. His fingers reached into the bag and laid one of the circular sweets on his tongue.

"I will" she pointed at the door, "take a walk! Yes, I need to see the city, and what better way? I'll be out of your hair too." Her smile was more or less genuine, a confusing detail considering the situation. L concluded she hit her head on the floor and wasn't in her right mind. Quickly the girl stood up and almost bolted out of the hotel, yelling on her way out "I'll be back in an hour!"

Watari walked over and straightened the cushions before sitting down. "Perhaps we should've let her out more?"

"Perhaps." He took a seat on the couch also. "Do you think we could rewind this?" He shuffled, looking for the remote. "You'll need to find her soon before she gets too lost."

---

Terra was free, she got away with it and he didn't even know! She wanted to revel in her findings on the laptop, but this was no time to do so. It was the time to sight see. The girl hadn't seen much of the outside since shopping with Watari, and even that was mostly spent in various stores.

The pavement was hard and cold, a familiar feeling, and the evening wind was surprisingly refreshing. At the street light, she turned the corner with a brisk walk. After that came another corner, which this time she crossed the street with her fellow pedestrians. Most of them were strict-looking adults walking to their third-shift job, and gave the young and obviously unemployed girl a strange look, as if it was some homeless cat. But Terra didn't care, Terra was free, Terra was in Japan!

Terra was lost. She couldn't remember when she turned or where, or even what the hotel looked like. She didn't bother when leaving. "Stupid impulses" she murmured under her breath. It had also occurred to her that it was late at night and some psycho could jump out of any of the dark alleys she passed and kill her.

Suddenly her feet became more interesting to look at than the people. The cement became harsh and unfamiliar. This was not fun anymore, her adrenaline wore off. She couldn't help but wonder how she would get back to her temporary home.

As a girl walking alone on the streets at night consumed by her own thoughts, it was unsurprising that Terra would end up bumping into someone. He was a tall, young man, also absorbing himself with his mind. Had it not been near a light, she probably would have just murmured an apology and continued, being too stubborn to ask for directions. This was not the case and she ended up looking the man in the eyes, even thought it meant raising her head higher than she was used to, considering how L always was hunched over and was practically eye-level.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry" she stammered, forgetting that this was not a country in which English was the main language and disoriented that her worries were interrupted.

The man paused, seemed to contemplate her sentence, then replied. "No, it's OK, it was my fault for not looking." It was spoken with a slight accent and his voice struck a chord, it made her want to hug him and cry, but she had no idea why that was the case.

He was facing the street light, unlike her, so his face was partially lit with artificial light. Brown hair, proper clothes, although they were ruffled from something that happened earlier that day. He looked down at her and smiled.

It then occurred to Terra that she was face-to-face with Light Yagami.

**I'm really sorry that this took longer than expected to come out. I got lost on the road of life. I had to rewrite this darn thing three times before it went the way that didn't bore me to tears, let alone you. Hopefully this story will get more interesting now....**


	6. Truant

**Thanks 5FIVE5 (for reviewing), xxPanda-chan (for putting on alert), Simone Lecrae (for favouriting), and Volcanic Monsoon (for reviewing)!!!! :3 **

Truant

"Are you not from around here?" Light sounded genuinely concerned, which was only making the situation worse. Shit, and she was working for L too. She silently was very glad her back was to the lamppost instead of his. Hopefully, her face was not seen.

"I'm fine" his expression did not change, "really, I am."

"It's not safe to walk around the streets at night like this."

"I-I know, I was just angry at my boyfriend." Well, lying always seemed to help everyone else on L's side, why not her?

"Oh." The much taller man seemed to take this into consideration. "I see. How about you walk with me until we find him? If he's worth anything, he's probably looking for you right now. Also, you'll be a lot safer if you aren't alone." She blushed at the prospect, but tried not to lose her composure.

"Alright then" she said, and they began to walk down the street where Light was originally heading in silence.

It felt awkward and eerie, not to mention extremely wrong and cliche to Terra, but he wouldn't pick up on that not knowing that's what it was. Their steps echoed out of sync and cars seemed to slow down when passing by, almost as is observing her with rigid disapproval. He took notice of her uncomfortableness and struck up small talk.

"Plenty of interesting news lately, huh?"

"Yeah, especially some pretty controversial stuff, right?" Of course the conversation would find a way to talk about Kira. Might as well hurry up and get it over with.

"You're talking about the Kira case." A statement, not a question. "It's all over the world currently. What do you think about him?" His voice seemed to take a colder, more forcibly polite tone suddenly. What would happen if she gave him the wrong answer?

It was one thing to think an anime character was attractive, even one that was psychotic or had a bad personality. It was another thing that one would get mixed up with that character on an empty street in the middle of the night, more so if that one were to take in account that they were working for the equally attractive enemy of said character.

"I believe in most of his ideals" she told him.

"Most?"

"Most." This visibly annoyed him, for he was expecting her to say what she did or did not like, not to repeat what he just asked like that was a suitable answer.

He chuckled. "Well, you can't like everything about someone. I agree; that killer is pretty childish in my opinion. How about you?" A facade, a facade, that's all it is, she should not fall for it, no, she _won't_ fall for it, just don't look at him._ Don't look at him!_

"I'm not childish, sir."

"Mm?" He realized the question wasn't worded very well, and perhaps he wasn't going to get all the information he wanted from casually poking; he needed to pry. Pry very hard and not have his intentions known. "Ah, no, I didn't mean it as saying you're childish. I meant that's what I don't like about him."

"Sorry." Why was she apologizing? Her feet started to look very attractive, with their skanky tennis shoes and neon green socks on them. "I don't like how he kills whoever's in his way."

The man followed her eyes and ended up looking at her shoes as well. "Care to expand on that?" Well, wasn't someone getting curious.

"Take Lind L. Taylor. He was brought on television and shown as that super detective, only to be immediately killed without hesitation without proof on who he was. What if he was some upstanding citizen who supported Kira?"

"Well if he was, then he shouldn't have posed as L on public television then. People shouldn't get in the way of justice."

"Well if Kira really is justice, then shouldn't he be able to eliminate people in his path without hurting them? He should be able to convert them that he's right, 'show them the light' or something. Not kill perfectly good people."

"There are some people who just won't understand no matter how much you-"

"The FBI agents weren't bad people. They were just doing their jobs. They had families, you know?" She looked at him again, only to see now he was the one looking away. "I'd hate to be Kira, personally, 'cause I wouldn't be able to live with myself after killing innocent people for the sake of my beliefs." _Take that Light, how does a good guilt trip feel? Feels like crap_. Perhaps she was childish. She agreed with the man, for Pete's sake!

He looked at her again, this time neither turning away. A battle of eye contact in the dark with no way of deciding the winner. "You have a point, and very strong opinions for someone your age. Have you considered being a lawyer?" He chuckled again in a well-timed manner. The look on her face was enough to make him keep talking. "I'm Light by the way. I don't believe we properly introduced ourselves." Light held out his hand, which made her remember by the awkwardness of it that she was not in the right country still. Would bowing be rude?

"I'm Amy. Sorry you had to speak English this entire time." She didn't even look like an Amy, where'd that name come from?

"It's no problem. Good experience too, although I'll assume my accent is thick, right?"

Neither knew why the situation had gotten so political then switched to a light note as if they were good friends on the school debate team.

She had just started to shake his hand when an attractive, black car pulled up to the side and the window rolled down, dimly showing Watari's features. Conspicuous just didn't seem to work for these people.

"Ryuzaki is anxious as to where you went" he stated.

She met him at the window. "I bet he was." She turned back to Light and waved. "Well, my ride's here, it was nice speaking to you!"

"...Bye." He looked confused at the car's sudden arrival and her causality.

The older man hit the accelerator and he disappeared quickly in the blur.

"Who was that?" Watari asked once they turned a corner.

"A guy I met that made sure I wasn't kidnapped and raped." The images flashing by were giving her a headache, and she laid herself on the entire backseat.

He sighed, but looked more or less relieved that was the case and not something else. It was obvious he didn't see who's face that was. "You shouldn't joke about those sorts of things. Why did you leave without notice anyway?"

"Fresh air." She wondered what L would be eating when they arrive. Maybe she should ask later that they stock the fridge with something healthy but not some weird rich food, eliminating what L and Watari kept in the hotel. "How'd you find so fast? That detective put a tracking device on me or something?" she joked.

"I'm not allowed to tell you." He did.

"So how much trouble am I in?"

---

The movie's credits were rolling on the television screen when Watari came back with the truant, holding her shoulder as if she would escape again if given the slightest chance. "Hello again, Miss Terra, how was the city?"

"Big, lot of people, stuff." She didn't even sound concerned as to what her punishment might be, which made him wish he hadn't already decided on one so he could make it worse.

"I want you to take a shower to wake yourself up, you're going to help me go over the files for the Kira case." He took notice that she was staring at his bowl of cherry Jello with a raised eyebrow.

"What about my punishment?" The girl was still distracted, but more or less still aware.

He did not want to let on what it was yet. "That is not important at the moment." He motioned to Watari to let go of her, and he bowed before leaving for the night, most likely going to pay a visit to the orphanage or catch up on sleep. "We need to find links between all the evidence we have currently, and I want you to give me your opinion."

"Really?" She sat down by him and look at the coffee table full of folders, before flipping through a few of them.

"Yes, I need someone to view it from a lower thinking process." His eyes looked at to the file name she was pointing at, which was in Japanese for Soichiro's police team's convenience. "That file is for the criminals in jail's deaths and suicide messages."

It took her a moment, but she understood his first sentence. "That wasn't very nice. I hope you get fat." Picking up another folder: "This one has F-B-I written on it."

L considered that maybe it would have been better to have had made a copy in English, but it was at least getting her frustrated as well, and he had his Jello, so it was going to prove to be a very odd punishment.

---

Light was called by Ryuga the next day at eight in the morning. Apparently he was invited to come discuss unmentioned topics that would prove to see if he could be trusted to work on the Kira case. Paranoid little shit. But if he really was L, this could be a productive move for Kira if he could get trusted.

A limousine picked him up after classes and brought him to a hotel where the driver, an older man who seemed familiar, told him to wait because something came up and he wasn't allowed in the actual meeting place yet. As to what came up that made the strange detective change his plans was beyond him.

He walked over to the little cafe in the lobby and bought some coffee. He was looking around for a table to sit at when he noticed he was being waved down by someone, who then ran up to him. She had bags under her eyes from what he presumed was an all-nighter and was in different lighting, but he was positive it was the girl from last night. "I thought I recognized you when you came in, how are you this morning?" She was carrying a bag with some folders sticking out of it, but she kept dragged him to the table she was at and sat him down before he could get a good look at them.

"Hello Amy, what are you doing here?" She straightened quickly and murmured something, but acted as if it were nothing.

"I'm staying here for a while, how about you? I assumed you lived around here." She laughed a bit at what she seemed to think was a joke and he laughed along with her for good measure. The girl looked more hysterical than happy. He debated whether the boyfriend she mentioned was the cause or if it was the lack of sleep.

"I was going to a meeting, but there was a change in plans, so I ended up stuck here for a while." It was better to act social and tell her the somewhat truth, in case she might be useful. A foreign Kira supporter that could hold an opinion was very good luck on his part.

"That sucks. I'd hate that if it were me." She paused, looked up, then pouted before changing subjects. "So what kind of meeting are you going to?"

"Actually, one to discuss Kira." His bluntness caused a tired giggle from her. He smelled the aroma of strong coffee and discovered it was emitting from her cup.

"I see, does that mean you have different opinions from before?" He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something different about her.

"No, I still think he's childish. I could go into more detail about it though, if you'd like. Unless you'd rather sleep on the table." He watched lift her head up and force herself to pay attention. What was she doing all night to be this tired?

"Go on, I'm fine." _Something different, but what?_

"Alright, sorry if I bore you or pronounce something wrong. Why do you want to hear about this anyway?" He sipped some coffee and looked at the places she glanced at occasionally.

"Because I find everything you say fascinating, especially with that accent of yours."

Light broke a smile, a real one, and wondered if she was smitten; all the better if so. "I have a theory that Kira is most likely between middle school or high school-"

Amy wasn't paying attention. She was looking around again, searching for something. He tapped her and she focused once more on him. However, this same pattern kept happening, but on occasion she corrected herself with a jolt.

_Something different_, he thought, _but what? She's bored and tired, that's obvious, but there was another factor. Her eyes kept returning to the same places, maybe she's being watched by that boyfriend or the old man from last night. It's possible, but then the coincidences. He just happened to get stopped here where she just happened to be staying. They both had opinions of Kira, and she acted as if a stalker was behind her chair. L was behind this somehow, he had to be._

"-And if the FBI agents were killed in the time period, so there might be a link to Kira. I heard on the internet some strange rumours, like this one where-"

Another theory formed in Light's mind. _Even though we already had a conversation about Kira, she wanted to talk about it again. She keeps fidgeting with her hair and ear, but I can't see if she's playing with an earring or-_

_L. Does she have something to do with him? That would make things fit perfectly. If she somehow was connected, it would explain the expensive car she was picked up in, like how Ryuga was yesterday. The bags from going over information perhaps. Messing with her ear and hair due to an ear piece so she can receive instructions. Cameras, hence the looking around. The fucking hotel even! _

"There's a flaw in this theory, because how is it possible to do this without-" A flaw. She was a Kira supporter for the most part; she has no reason to work with L. He couldn't figure that out. She didn't even speak Japanese. The girl isn't of very much use to the detective. Is she?

"-and that's all I have so far." He concluded and drank more of his coffee, only to have it go down his throat cold and stale.

"Wow, no wonder you're going to a meeting for that. We just killed an hour, I think. Maybe the clock's wrong, I don't know." Amy stood up from her chair and threw the coffees away, taking his when noticing he wouldn't touch it. "Well, you're meeting should start soon, so I better go and not take up any more of your time. It was nice seeing you again!" Abruptly, she started heading for the elevators.

Light intercepted her path. "I can't just let you do that. I must have bored you the entire time and now I feel guilty. Can I make it up to you somehow?"

She grinned. "Well, I _guess_ you could escort me to my hotel room so I don't get lonely on the way there."

He couldn't tell if she was flirting or teasing him. Almost grateful, he took her up on the offer and they boarded the elevator. She jabbed the button for the seventh floor and they went up. Seven was said to be a lucky number. If she was true to her word and a Kira supporter, he could probably seduce her in the room without anyone knowing. Or, if he was right, he may be led to L. Unless the worst case scenario would happen on either possibility, this could be a lovely opportunity.

After getting off and listening to her chatter about the weather down the hall, they arrived at her door. She tried the door, then remembered that one would need a key and pulled it out of a pocket.

Upon entering the room, the two were greeted by a young man with spiky black hair and a hunched-over appearance, with bags even deeper than Amy's.

"Hello Light Yagami." The man spoke in Japanese.

Ryuk started chuckling in a rather disturbing manner. "Humans are so interesting."

"Nice to see you again, Hideki Ryuga."

Seven is a lucky number.

**This chapter ended sooner than originally expected, but I don't think the next part should be stuck with this one. Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on who's side you're on), Light had the most POV today. Sorry about his long monologue; it seemed to explain everything the best. If you have any comments, there's a button for that, otherwise you can wait hopefully patiently for the next chapter. Ciao.**


	7. Truth

**To start off, super thanks to XxRainbow-DarknessxX (for favouriting), 5FIVE5 (for reviewing), PhoarTeenyEmos (for favouriting and putting on alert), Naomirannah (for putting on alert), Volcanic Monsoon (for reviewing), and Quiet (for reviewing)!!!! You're all so encouraging! :'D**

**Something else: I actually met someone named Terra the other day in class, who sits next to me. I can't help but wonder if she's been there since day 1. Very different people, I assure you.**

Truth

"Do you know why you are here?" L asked patiently, scratching one foot with the other since his hands were too busy being in his jean pockets.

"Yes, unless I'm mistaken somehow." The man in question was in no rush either, planning something in the depths of his mind.

It was mildly annoying that Light was still content and would not take the bait and say anything about using a woman to try and see if he would admit anything, but it was too loose of a plan to begin with.

Still, he kept his composure. "And _why_ do you think you are here with us today?" A slow process, but there was nothing else possible at the moment.

"Well," he started, clearing his throat, "at first I was talking to Amy here about Kira, but then I realized I was secretly being interrogated by a seemingly innocent girl who approached me on the street in the middle of the night that I just happen to meet again when my appointment with L, who I presume is you now, was suddenly canceled."

"Correct." Relief silently came upon the detective; Light didn't know the meeting with the girl wasn't intentionable. Perhaps he did come up with that possibility, but judging by the tone, nothing was let on.

The younger man took a seat on the couch with a straight back and a prim position. Terra felt comfortable on the arm hold of the said couch on the opposite side, and L perched himself in a chair with his feet on the coffee table, still covered with files from the previous night.

Since they were sitting on the same piece of furniture, L could compare the two in one glance. Light was obviously taller, but they looked around the same age, though how they held themselves could have fooled someone. His hair was also a darker shade, a chocolate in this light, whereas hers had an unnatural lightened look to it, three percent chance from recently dying it. Still, they were similar enough to be questioned.

"Are you two by any chance related?" Was what he asked in English. His answer was given immediately from Terra laughing like a maniac and Light raising his eyebrow before inching away as far as the couch would take him.

Light coughed into his sleeve. "Well, could we get back to business? Such as who she is and why I was being interrogated? I'm not Kira, I already told you that."

Stubborn. "That is my assistant from foreign affairs, T." He switched from Japanese again. "Say hello to Light, T."

"Hi." A quick wave in the killer's general direction, then she immediately redirected her attention to something distracting and less important.

"May I ask why you suddenly showed me your face and hers?" It must have been awkward for Light to say something and know only one person could understand. He'd get used to it eventually.

L dropped a tea bag into a cup of hot water he was holding and sipped, then grabbed the sugar cubes. "I would like if you helped on the investigation." Shock was expressed just barely on his enemy's face, which the girl seemed to pick up on and more or less realized the weight of the unknown question, eyeing the two suspiciously.

He regained composure quickly. "Making a suspect help you in case I slip up or actually catch Kira, an impressive plan."

"I am not making you do anything, Light."

"I'd only look more like the criminal if I decline." A small laugh. "Besides, my name will be cleared if I just find this guy and prove you were wrong this entire time."

Terra was starting to become agitated and jabbed at his shoulder with her index finger repeatedly until he glared at her, so the detective chose to take the moment and summarize what was just conversed. This could be a real handicap in the future.

Her reaction after patiently listening and nursing her finger, his shoulder was rather hard, was to jump up and hug the killer, no doubt shocking both of them. "Welcome to the team Light!" she squealed in English, "I hope you don't mind parting with sleep, no one does that around here!"

"Um, OK then."

"Ignore her."

"Too much coffee?" He inquired.

L didn't feel the need to respond. He went back to English. "Well, I feel we have all bonded enough for today. Tomorrow I will have someone pick you up and get you started on catching yourself."

"What did you say?"

"Catching Kira. We will be starting that tomorrow." He dismissed the younger man, opening the door for him and then abruptly shutting it once he was through.

"What's your problem?" the girl asked.

---

Light was heading towards the end of the hall for the elevator when he heard raised voices from the room he just left. Turning, he went closer to listen, just for a second. There was L's voice, not so loud but his tone made him sound ready to snap, and T's, who was close to yelling. It was entirely in English, which was hard to comprehend at the speed they were talking, and L's accent certainly didn't help.

The voices started to calm down and T apologized. Apparently, L did not like her being so conspicuous. He couldn't figure out why, but it was not his business, so he should not care.

He didn't realize he crouched down to be more comfortable while listening, so he stood back up and started to leave. Ryuk was laughing, as usual. "You're a really annoying shinigami, you know that?" he muttered.

"You're all so interesting, I can't help it."

He had pushed the button for the elevator when a thought hit him._ Wait_, Light told himself, _what are you doing? They had no idea you were listening. Why not just stay and figure out what they're planning to do?_

Quietly, he ran back down the hall and perched himself back in front of the door next to a potted plant. "Ryuk, make sure no one's coming.'

"Why should I?"

"I'll buy some apples on the way back if you do."

He laughed again. "You drive a hard bargain."

"Just shut up and do it."

---

Terra was pissed that she was lectured about her immaturity and whatnot, how she shouldn't assault the suspects and should stay quiet unless she has something useful to say. She sat quietly on the couch, now with only one person on it, making it seem too large and intimidating. L brought out his laptop and was doing something with it while having a conversation with Watari on the cell phone. The screen was facing away from her and he was speaking entirely in Japanese, so she could only look at files with diagrams and pictures for something to do.

The detective snapped the phone shut and continued what he was doing with his full attention. Or so she thought.

"May I hear your opinion on this matter?" L asked her out of the blue.

"My opinion on what?"

"Light Yagami as a suspect." Awfully specific, so he must have taken in consideration that she had a different opinion of him as a person. For a man who lacked skills in the social department, he picked up on a lot of things.

"He's Kira." She nodded with affirmation, flipping a page.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." He dare doubt her?

"I see." He seemed lost in thought, and her answer only dragged him further into his head.

"Wait a second, that was a trick question, wasn't it?" What an annoying guy, taking advantage of her less intelligent-ness.

"No Miss Terra, it was not." She had the strange sensation to look up and met his gaze, hard and penetrating. "How do you know he is Kira?" The question took her by surprise. "You could not have understood the last conversation we just had and I highly doubt he confessed to you when you ran into him last night."

He just pointed out how little she should know in one sentence. Was there any way to prove how she knew he was Kira? _The truth_, the back of her mind told her. _No, there had to be something else. Come on!, Terra told herself, be resourceful!_

"Well, he is, uh, really normal. Light is. Seems above average smart, but the way he acts is so clean it seems like he's doing it to avoid suspicion. But small things like the trick drawer in his desk with explosives rigged to it; that's just not right." She paused, trying to see if he believed the explanation so far. "He also talks about Kira a lot to strangers, where it wouldn't seem weird to us, since we know his father works on the case and now he's working on the case, but when I first met him, that was one of the first things he asked."

"He asked you about Kira?" L interrupted.

"Yeah. If I didn't know it was Light, I would've thought the guy was a complete whack-job, saving me from predators then suddenly asking me my opinion, like it was my religion and it would determine whether or not I came back alive or something."

He interrupted again. "How did you know he was Light?"

_Shit. _"You know, from the cameras we set up."

"You weren't allowed to watch Light's room. You were watching Sayu because she is a girl."

"When we were setting up in his house, I saw the family picture." She hoped to be able to cover her slip up, but was it possible with L?

"I never told you who's house we were in. I didn't even give you the layout, yet you walked around as if you lived there" he added, just realizing this fact.

"Oh, well it's similar t-to my house, so I di-"

"Where do you live?"

"The United States of co-"

He stopped allowing her to finish her sentences. "I looked up your record the other day. According to the government, one Terra exists under your last name, and she is a thirty-year-old housewife with two kids. You do not look like a housewife, nor a redhead." _Oh come on! He looked me up? Paranoid asshole!_

"There's a simple expla-"

"Either you gave me an alias or there's something else. Which is it?" He turned away and gave her the silent treatment.

"No, don't do that" she begged. He even knew her weakness. This was not a day to screw around. "Fine, something else." His back stiffened, but still did not take recognition of her. "I'm not from here."

"I am already aware of that" the back of his head told her.

"Then what do you want?" She considered how much the plot would be affected if she tried to choke him.

"Why you're not in the government system and how you know things you shouldn't."

"Like Misora?"

"Yes, like Misora."

"Mmm." She took a deep breath. "I guess, I'm not from here."

"We've already established that. Anything more useful?"

"No, no, no" Terra shook her head, "not that way. I'm not from here. Uh, a similar country but not the same one you know."

"You're not making sense. Did forcing you to stay awake all night make you less comprehensible than usual?" L asked, with a hint of mocking in his voice.

"No, I'm serious." She leaned close to him and motioned that the next part was going to be whispered into his ear. "I think I'm in a different world."

"Stop messing with me."

"Only when Life stops screwing with me." She moved away from the man and back into where she was sitting cross-legged.

They stared at each other, waiting to see who gave in first, whether she'd tell him the real story or he'd believe her. She thought that it would stretch into the next day, but surprisingly he spoke first easily. It was almost a disappointment.

"All right, if this is true, how did you get here?" He questioned.

"So you believe me?" Her face brightened.

"No." Her face dropped. "I'm curious."

_About what? _She didn't ask him. "By bus."

"Not to my hotel, to this world."

She just told him. "Well, I fell asleep on a bus, then woke up on another bus. Except, you know, in _Japan_."

"That is completely illogical."

"Gee, thanks for reminding me. Anything else you want to dissect, or is that good enough for you?"

"How do you know certain things?" He didn't hesitate.

It sounded difficult to explain in Terra's mind, and even more incredulous than the bus, though he didn't seem to want much detail on that or why she was on one to begin with. "Do you know anything about manga?"

"Yes, I have read a few."

She tried to wipe the disbelief off her face. "Yeah, well there's a series about a killer named Kira and the police trying to stop him." She then added, "Where I came from."

"So there's a manga about the case somewhere?"

"And an anime. I didn't really read all of the manga." It was not that important of a fact, but she ended up saying it. "When you say 'the case', you do realize it was the very plot line you are unintentionally following right now, right?"

"My life's depicted in a book with pictures?"

"Not really. Only the part after you show your face to Light. He's the main character."

A mumble of understanding. "That is how you know he is Kira." He looked to be taking it surprisingly well.

"Yep."

"What else?" The man was suddenly interested in every breath she took, which would have been euphoric to her if the thought that he was only interested in taking down his enemy wasn't looming over her head. Being used was perfect for ruining the mood.

Instead, Terra simply shrugged her shoulders. "I don't really feel like going into details right now. Maybe the all-nighter has something to do with it. Who knows?" She was hoping to make him feel guilty and leave her alone when it came to sleeping habits from now on. Looking at his face though, it dawned on her that he really didn't care. "Unless of course, you're willing to seduce the information out of me" she said, winking.

His back was already facing her, uncaring. The detective took no notice of that last sentence, or maybe even the ones before. The window and his thoughts were more satisfying. "I do not like it when others are stubborn."

"Oh, come on! You're just as stubborn as everyone else around this stupid place, probably even more so!" She stomped her foot.

"Be that as it may, I do not like more than one stubborn person in the room. We currently have two." He turned when saying this, and Pocky had somehow found its way into his mouth.

Before whining again, she held out her hand to demand a stick for herself, and continued only after most of the plain part that one was supposed to hold onto was bitten off. "I'm freaking living with you twenty-four hours of the day. There's going to be plenty of time to suck all the information you would ever want out of me."

"I guess that is an under-"

A noise from the hotel hallway distracted them. It sounded as if something fell over, the noise dulled slightly by the carpeting.

"What was that?" Terra got up and headed for the door.

"I do not know either." He also went for the door, passing her with his slouched walk. He opened it and peered around before going fully into the hallway, with her quickly at his side. No one was in sight. The elevator's doors closed and its roar echoed towards them.

"Was that a cat or something?"

"This is a hotel, not an apartment, Miss Terra."

"So a rat then?"

She noticed he eyed the potted plant suspiciously, which had some dirt spilled onto the floor. "Most likely. A dirty, thieving rat" he said as they walked back inside. L closed the door gently and met her gaze. "By any chance, that series you were telling me about. Did the author include my name?"

"No." She was not sure why she chose to lie.

**This chapter failed in arrival time. Most likely, so will the next one. :'D Sorry.**

**The original parts I wrote in my notebook included a lot more humour, but this was meant to be a serious-ish chapter, so the nail polish diversion was edited out. I hope I can include it later, just because it was so absurd.**


	8. Temptation

**Thank you very much 5FIVE5 (for reviewing), tomboyhypergirl (for putting on alert, favouriting, and reviewing), pan94 (for favouriting), and michi-nin (for favouriting and reviewing)!!! I am a very happy author to have such nice people read my story.**

**Also, I took the Universal Mary-Sue Litmus test for Terra. She received a 17, which isn't terrible, but.... **

**Forgive the long time you had to wait for an update.**

Temptation

"Amane Misa is showing suspicious activity as expected" Terra was told quietly while the task force was watching the recently stolen tapes of Sakura TV being held hostage, courtesy of Soichiro's actions the night before.

"Did she have a notebook with her?"

"A... notebook?"

"Yeah, you know, in your reports or something." She stopped looking over L's shoulder when Matsuda turned around, smiling brightly to reassure the man she had no idea what they were talking about and the detective really was translating. None of them were very good with English, so the detective used larger words that they most likely didn't know when one was listening. She gave the man a thumb's up. "Good work."

The detective pulled her back down by her shirt. "Pay attention. The investigators saw something black, but no notebook."

She took advantage of the man's hold and rested her chin on his shoulder. "That must be the notebook then. They're black, you know."

He shrugged her off quickly and with much discomfort. "So you have already told me."

"Has she been arrested yet?"

"No."

Incredulous, she asked "What?" rather loudly. Several of the men turned, but then assumed she had responded to the television screen. They nodded with understanding and refocused their attention.

L lightly smacked her and whispered "Do not be so loud. You're too close to my ear."

"Oops. But anyway" a glance at the Japanese men, "why not?" she whispered with a furrowed brow.

"There isn't substantial evidence as of yet."

"You're kidding, right?"

"I don't kid, T."

"You seem pretty good with sarcasm though." Terra rolled her eyes. "Isn't being suspected of being a world-wide mass murderer enough proof?"

"It is, but not to myself."

"Personally speaking with a person who has seen the entire Kira case before it has even happened yet isn't a good enough opinion?"

He was silent, staring forward at the tapes with sudden interest. It occurred to her he still didn't believe her. How could he not? The story was crazy enough that someone couldn't possibly make it up and deliver it with a look of life-experience. Then again, Tsugumi Ohba did a good job on that matter....

She didn't like this line of thinking. About to ask L if he did believe her, one of the men, a man she remembered being named Aizawa, spoke to L. The detective responded, and they rapidly became engrossed in the gibberish they were speaking. The past few days were all like this, and tore on her patience tremendously. She gripped the detective chair tightly, stabbing the wood with her short fingernails and waited for a translation. One that did not come for some time as more of the cops became involved and something near an argument broke out.

Terra drifted in her head to ease her irritation and didn't notice when L was addressing her. It took him prying her hand off the piece of furniture to capture her attention. "T" he said, "You will greet Light when he arrives in the lobby with Watari. He is coming to observe the tapes and see if he comes to the same conclusion."

"That Misa's the one doing this?"

"That there is another Kira, T. Please try not forcing your opinions on others when there is no proof." _Hypocrite_. She bit her tongue and nodded. He then brought her close, in whispering distance again. "Remember the plan we discussed last night."

"You really think he will-?"

"Not here. But, yes. If I am correct, there is a ninety-percent chance he will." Then she realized that she was supposed to be heading for the lobby now, thoroughly dismissed.. Opening the door, L chose to speak again. "Don't tell him our conclusions. It's vital that he doesn't know."

"Got it." Her hand was on the knob.

"And T?" The door was opened a crack.

"Yes?"

"Be careful not to do anything stupid." The door was fully open now, the hallway beckoning her. Terra left, smiling with her back to anyone who could see her.

----

Light was not surprised to see the more inconspicuous-looking T than her male superior walking brightly out of the elevator. Upon her arrival, they shook hands and exchanged morning greetings. The old man, Watari, then told her that he had business to attend to and to tell Ryuzaki, who would understand. Her eyes widened a bit, knowing what he meant, and he clenched his fist, angered that they all knew something he couldn't from that one sentence. However, he quickly cooled himself down by reminding himself of how convenient this was, being alone with the girl. If what he heard last night was true, she would be a very useful pawn.

"Let's get going" she said, and ushered him to the elevator.

"Wait" he said quickly, thinking fast. "How about we use the stairs instead?"

"But we have to go up four floors."

"Doesn't matter. You look athletic, and" he paused, "I want to talk."

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but shrugged and they headed for the staircase door. _Good_, he thought,_ now I have more time to persuade her. This shouldn't be too hard._

On the first flight of stairs, Light stopped walking and just held the railing in his hand. T, being ahead of him by a few steps, didn't notice until she was at the door for the second floor. Then, she realized and walked back down and faced him, just as planned. "Well?" she asked him.

"There's no need to rush, I can take my time, can't I?" The beginning of a debate sprawled onto her face. She wants to get to the hotel room as soon as possible, most likely to avoid making a huge blunder, but L probably instructed she had to watch him and befriend him as well. Did the detective suspect he'd try to pull something? That man was as intuitive as expected.

"Sure, whatever" she finally said, giving in and shrugging. They started climbing the steps again, much slower this time, though the girl still kept her distance ahead.

It had gotten quiet again between them, no small talk at all, which is not what he wanted. "Did you sleep well last night?" Light asked her.

"Why is it any of your concern?" she asked back.

"Well" he said, purposely pausing and making the notion of rubbing the back of his head, "last time we saw each other-"

"Yesterday" T said.

"Yes, yesterday you didn't seem to have had a very good night. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't anything serious."

"Mmm." Her hand hovered over the railing, unsure of whether to grip. He had hit a weakness in the female mind; caring. Showing concern for her health always worked with his last girlfriends a well. He took the advantage and closed the gap of three steps between them, placing his hand on her shoulder, causing her to turn around and give him eye contact. "Is everything alright with the detective? Is he treating you bad?"

"No, no, everything is fine" she assured him. Finally remembered he was still touching her and shied away. Stopped facing him and resumed the task in front of her. A stubborn one, though he cracked her a bit.

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"Alright then." They walked in silence before he tried again. "Do you believe Ryuzaki?"

"On what?" T knew what he was talking about.

"On the idea that I'm Kira."

"My opinion is my own, and he does not influence it." Neither do you, she didn't say.

"I suppose it is a strong one." Light's patience was starting to run thin. He, Kira, had to persuade this hapless female onto his side! And in English no less! He considered pushing her to the wall and forcing her, but most likely she'd tattle to her little boss. That couldn't happen. He'd have to do this the hard way.

"You suppose correct." There was a hint of smile in that tone. Was she... playing hard to get?

"We're here" she stated suddenly, and Light realized they were in front of the stairway exit with a four labeled on the side.

"That was quick." He had no more unsupervised time. He had to act. He quickly grabbed the door knob as her hand started to turn it and got close.

"I need to open the door" she said.

"Wait a second' he told her. Touched his other hand to the wall behind them. "Hypothetically, if I_ were _Kira, and you had the perfect opportunity to throw me in jail for life, would you?"

She squirmed a little, not used to their closeness, but also seemed happy as well. He let her settle, and then she answered with a tease to her voice. "I might."

"You might?"

"I might."

"My life would hanging on the balance of your decision, and all you can say is that you _might_?" he teased back.

Light then released T from her position against the door and allowed her to open it and guide him to the hotel room. He did not bother looking at the room numbers; it wouldn't be the same tomorrow.

The girl took out the room key once stopping at an average-looking door. It was no different from the rest in the hallway, except if one were to try and look into the keyhole, which was blocked. She just stood there even after he caught up. "What's wrong?"

"If" she started, seemingly unsure of whether or not she should say this, fiddling with the key card, "if you were Kira, hypothetically-" she stopped.

About to say something, he opened his mouth, only for her to continue. "Ryuzaki is going to test you when you walk in. About the tapes from Sakura TV being held hostage. He's looking specifically for you to say that there is a second Kira. So, if Kira were to be the one asked, it would lessen suspicion if he agreed with the police and said there was only one." Another pause, though shorter this time. "Let's go in, shall we? Jeez, we're really late. He's going to be pissed."

Light was speechless for a moment at not only the information, but her sudden change in attitude. He looked and noticed a dark shape under the door that wasn't there before.

Ryuzaki opened the door before T could swipe the key.

----

"Welcome, Light" L said in Japanese, then looked over at his assistant and raised an eyebrow.

The girl started nodding furiously. "Well, you see, I thought it would be better if we took the stairs, faster than the elevator, and who knows if someone was following us, but I guess it didn't work out that way, I tripped and we were slow, I'm sorry for holding everyone up-"

"Enough" he told her in English, and waved her through the door dismissively. She took up her vacated chair and started babbling to Matsuda.

The detective then watched the killer's every movement as he allowed him in the door. The stride was smooth and confident. The hands were casual, did not fiddle, though he didn't see the man as the type who would when nervous. Everything about him radiated a sense of being in control of the situation, instead of vice versa, which it was. He waited until he sat down, then turned the televisions on again. Everyone in the room fell quiet. "Now Light, I want you to watch these videos we confiscated last night from Sakura TV of their being held hostage. Tell us what you think when they are finished."

The younger man did as told and did not say a word throughout the entire thing. Behind L's nicer chair, Soichiro grabbed uselessly to the edge with anxiety.

The screen went black in what seemed to be very little time. "Well?"

"I'm not sure what to conclude, Ryuzaki, aside from Kira seeming desperate."

"Hmm."

The police seemed to chime in at once. "Ryuzaki and T believe there are two Kiras."

"I can't see what Kira's planning."

"There's something strange about the tapes, but I don't know what.'

"Are you stupid? These videos are too homemade to be done by him."

"Well what if he's trying to lead us on the wrong path? You're falling for his trap!"

"Imbecile! Don't assume things without proof!"

"What? What did he say?" The only English voice in the room.

"Everyone quiet" he said, and clanked a spoon against the bowl sitting on his lap. "You all have interesting opinions, but we will pursue this case as if there are two Kiras, despite the idea being the minority. Anyone opposed to it may leave." He repeated it in English to the girl, who stole a glance at the killer once she thought he wasn't looking. Typical.

There was murmur of opposition, but no one left. He acted as if nothing happened. "Matsuda" he called the man out, "did you have the tapes looked at?"

"Uh, y-yes Ryuzaki, there were fingerprints. Small, female I think." He tried to say it in English to impress him.

"You think?" Terra snickered to the right of him.

"Yeah- yes sir."

"Good. We'll pursue that later." The police then began talking amongst themselves as L focused on the young man in front of him.

"Light, we share different opinions on this."

"Yes. I see where you're coming from, but Kira is very intelligent and would most likely try to throw us off as much as possible." The detective almost cringed at how he said 'us'.

"This is the first time since we have met" he stated. Implying that the man might have slipped up.

"So it is."

"I wonder if Light will disagree with me again" he observed out loud in what should have been a question, but was said with accusing certainty.

The killer decided to take it light-heartedly and tease as if they were friends. "I might."

**To clear some things up for the more confused of you (if any), the "plan" L mentioned they talked about last night was not in any of the previous chapters. It happened sort of between the last one and this one. It's a secret right now :D **

**Another chapter finished! Woo hoo! Now, I was wondering if any of you have an opinion on the story so far and would love to hear it. You don't have to, of course, but that lovely little button is right there if you ever feel the urge. ;)**


	9. Time

**Thank you Maharet11 (for favoriting), michi-nin (for reviewing), The One Called Demetra (for putting on alert, reviewing, and favoriting), SS-lover06 (for putting on alert), tomboyhypergirl (for reviewing), and 5FIVE5 (for reviewing)!!!**

Time

Terra was sick; not physically ailed, but her mental state was of no use to the detective for the time being. It annoyed L that her timing did not work with his horrendously tight schedule. But being the genius that he was, there was already a back-up plan installed for this inevitable period. Inevitable, because any human being would react upon realizing the full extent that they were being used. He was no exception, though no one besides Watari had ever seen that pitiful time that he took the fetal position on the floor and would not touch the foul computer.

"Miss Terra" he said with a tone that was not asking, but didn't suggest he was simply stating her name either.

The girl lying in the hotel bed, a different one from their last meeting with Light, gave no response.

"Miss Terra." L was closer this time, only a few feet from the living corpse.

"Terra Thompson." She didn't even flinch at the mention of her last name, so foreign-sounding coming from his tongue, not to mention the incriminating evidence that she did not exist here, nor he wherever she had originated.

"T." His hunched figure was only meters from her curled-up one. Her back to him, and still nothing. He kicked her off the bed.

"What the Hell?" the girl yelled as she landed roughly on the carpeting with a profound noise. Scrambling back up, she flicked him off. He bit his thumb back in response, which gave her an even hotter response, though only showing on her face. It was mildly surprising that she understood the gesture; the girl knew some history?

"You were moping" he pointed out to her.

"Is that illegal in Japan?" Hissing. She was hissing at him. He did not act on the temptation to kick her again.

What an idiotic question, of course it was not illegal. "No, it is not Miss Terra. Welcome back to the present, if you are somewhat inclined to stay there."

"I'm not."

"If that is how you feel, you are allowed to take today off. Goodbye Miss Terra." He left the bedroom section and gathered up the things he would need today. The laptop was not with them and was not on the counter or the couch. It was by the girl, he reminded himself. L was actually sharing the sleeping space with her for once, both beds were within meters of each other, though he used the bed for its softness when browsing through files than for its actual purpose.

Only just lying down in her original position, the girl shot up immediately. "Goodbye? Where are you going?"

"Watari and I are going to do some up-close investigation on Amane Misa." He grabbed the black device from his bed and handed it to the elder gentleman who had walked through the door forty-three seconds ago.

"What about me?" More familiar behavior on her part, but it was her less preferable trait; whining.

"You will be a nuisance and hinder us if you tag along. If you see the girl again, she might recognize your atrocious pink pants and remember your name, killing you before we can figure out how. Comprehend?" She gave him a look, dumbfounded perhaps, he couldn't tell. It was either about him insulting her taste in clothing when his wasn't much better, or that she never really thought much about the blond girl killing her. He continued. "We will not pick up no matter how much you call and will not come over at any point because you need something. Mr. Yagami's number is written on the notepad on the counter if you do feel the need for another presence. Cameras have not been installed into the room due to Soichiro's utter protest and I have decided to_ trust _you. Can you handle such a responsibility?"

"You're making the father of a mass murderer my babysitter?" Then Terra let her body drop down onto the bed once more and looked as if she was intentionally trying to suffocate herself with the pillow. "Fine. Go, have fun." She waved half-heartedly.

He left the room, having already saying his departings.

----

"That bitch!" Terra thought out loud when she heard the door close almost immediately after. "Doesn't he know how to even say 'I'm leaving now, love ya, see you soon, adios',_ anything_?" She got up and unrumpled her clothes. At least her plan worked, somewhat; he left her alone. Just, she would have preferred if he didn't leave her with such a sour mood as well.

The young woman walked into the kitchen area, she never knew what exactly what they were called when they were connected to the living room, and rummaged through the fridge for some breakfast. Had to settle for toast with jam. "At least L keeps a toaster." She should make him take her out to eat breakfast sometime, and get_ some _nutrients into the man.

Sitting down at the counter, she begins to think. _I'm such a dumbass. I'm surrounded by two hot, extremely intelligent guys engaged in a battle against each other, and expect them to not manipulate me to get an advantage. Stupid, stupid, stupid girl._

Realizing the grape jam she plucked out of the fridge was not going to spread itself, Terra started hunting around the drawers, looking for a butter knife. _Who's side am I on anyway? I _do _get to pick, right? _She settled for a pearing knife. _Well, let's see. L is hot, but still seems like a creepy pedophile who likes to kick innocent girls. Light is also hot, but a psychopathic murderer who kills his assistants once they're of no more use. But he is really, really hot. And has nicer hair._

She was thirsty as well. Got out of her chair once more to see if there was orange juice hidden away as well. _I'm not very manipulative, at least compared to these impossible people, so picking the safer one would be smart. L will probably only arrest me or kick me some more. Then again, I'm a freaking Kira supporter. I should support Kira._

"Ah" she said, finding herself at the counter without memory of the event. Her toast had ran cold. A targedy of greatest proportions, more so than her thoughts.

Abandoning her cold food, she went to L's bed to sneak through his things. There were files upon files. There were files_ for _files. She picked one up. "Is this porn?" Moved it closer and then farther from her face. "Maybe I'm holding it wrong." The girl then replaced it to its spot. "Why is L so boring?"

Terra noticed a small book in the middle of a stack next to the detective's neglected pillow. She grabbed it, only to have every thing on top of it fall and scatter amongst the bed and floor. "Shit! No! Bad papers!" Quickly, she dropped the book and started gathering up the papers and shoving them in various files. The book landed on her foot.

After she was done hiding the mess she caused, the girl took the book off the floor and opened it. It was an address book. "L... has friends?" With curiosity, flipped through a few different pages, all of which listings were translated into Japanese, English, French, and something she couldn't identify. "Oh, they're all police and detective-related. That's dull."

An idea came to mind. She could use this to her advantage. She turned the alphabetical pages to the section she wanted, wrote down the number listed, marked as a cell phone, on a piece of paper from those little notepads every hotel provides, stuffed it into her bag of clothes for future use before dialing.

The phone rang. L did say she could call if she needed another presence in the room, but he didn't say she absolutely had to call Soichiro.

"Hey, how are you? No, it's T. Can you come over?"

She had decided whose side she was on.

----

"I've written the address down. Right, I'm coming" Light said into his cell phone. It was surprising to get a call from the girl, especially since he had not given her his phone number. But not wanting to chance his good fortune, he snagged a ride on the next bus and didn't question it. Ryuk was in a very good mood, it seemed.

"Will there be apples?"

"I don't know Ryuk, maybe. Chances are L has the entire place under surveillance, so you won't be able to eat them."

The shinigami tilted his head. "I'll eat them in the bathroom."

"The detective rigged cameras in the shower at my house, what makes you think he'd leave a hotel bathroom untouched?" he snapped back quietly so none of the other passengers thought he was schizophrenic.

"I thought you were in a good mood, why are you all annoyed now?"

"I'm annoyed, Ryuk, by your incessant asking for fruit. Besides, this is most likely a set up one way or another."

The young man's stop approached, and he departed with ease. The hotel was only a block away, it was not long before he was in the elevator on his way to the second floor. Light walked briskly and with an air of business, was not stopped at all as he approached room two-sixteen. He knocked twice and stood back.

"Hey, you're here! Come in" the girl said after unbolting the door.

"Tough security?" he observed.

"Yeah, detective's orders. Never can be too careful when dealing with a mass murderer, who knows if he can melt doors with his superpowers." She laughed. He didn't think it was quite that funny.

"I see." He then looked around the room upon walking in, and noticed what should have been in the room but was absent. "Where's Ryuzaki?"

"Gone. Busy on another case. He _is_ the world's most favorite detective."

"Yes, but he left you? I thought you were his assistant." Suspicious.

"Right" she said, not hesitating. She either guessed he'd ask ahead of time and prepared an answer, or it was the truth. "I'm working solo today, 'to give me character'" she made quotation marks with her fingers whilst saying it. "Hunting Kira on my own. Nothing but paper pushing madness really."

The young man raised an eyebrow. "Paper pushing? I thought you couldn't speak Japanese."

"I can't."

"Then how are you going over paperwork?" Did he catch her lie?

She held up a couple files, distinctly bearing a large T on the covers. "He had most of it translated for me." Damn. She smiled without a seeming reason. "Ahah, you were trying to catch me bluffing, weren't you? Expecting the detective to come out from under the bed or something and go 'Therefore you are Kira!', right?"

He plastered a fake smile on his face and laughed. "You have some imagination. Now, on the actual case, I'm having a hard time believing you and L on there being a second Kira. Really, the only evidence you two have is a couple of vide-"

"There aren't any cameras, Light."

"Excuse me?"

"No. Cameras. I checked. He trusts me and didn't install any before leaving. You don't need to fake the 'There is no second Kira' thing."

He tried not to break his expression. "Oh really? And what is the purpose of you calling me here if you are not planning to interrogate me somehow on camera?" He knew, of course he did, but one should never rush into anything.

"Planning on defeating L and running the ideal society afterward."

Light allowed a smile this time, not the usual young adult one that proper people used to be polite, but a distinctively twisted smirk. "You say that as if you're going to be running it with me."

"I believe I get to, being the one connection to L that you will ever have." She was getting cocky as well, it irritated him, her smugness, but also was exciting. What could he use her for, being this willing?

He decided that since this was going so much more smoothly than anticipated, he'd risk the question. "Are you really from another world and knows everything about the people on this case?"

She asked back, "Are you Kira?"

They stood there, having not moved from their spots since the man came in. It was quiet as the two stared at each other and stood their ground. She rocked slightly back and forth between the balls and heels of her feet; he was tapping his left foot. It stayed this way for a long stretch of time.

He was the one who broke the silence with an authoritative voice. "We'll discuss this later."

"Yes, yes we shall."

Light fixed his tie and sat down in a chair. "Are you going to be so rude to your guest that you won't even offer him coffee?"

**Ah, the famous thumb-biting. In Elizabethan days it was the equivalent of the finger today. One can only guess how many people L has flicked off without them knowing.**

**The ending really dissatisfied me for some reason. **


	10. Traitor

**Thank you The One Called Demetra (for reviewing), yuru-neko (for putting on alert), Lawisliet-is-kira (for favoriting), NotLila (for favoriting), tomboyhypergirl (for reviewing), SerenadeInTheMoonlight (for favoriting, putting on alert, and reviewing), happy-smiling-cookie (for putting on alert, favoriting, and reviewing), tabbyprincess (for putting on alert), Vampire Note (for reviewing), and 5FIVE5 (for reviewing)!!**

Traitor

Light was discussing with the girl about the person called Amane Misa, who sounded to be a very useful pawn with Shinigami Eyes, and thoroughly delighted. T was painting such a mesmerizing picture with the knowledge she had, revealing far better plans than he could have done alone. Not that someone like himself would ever admit such a thing.

She was telling him about how L was investigating her today, though on that subject, she was kept in the dark. He had just brought up how he was supposed to contact her without the detective knowing, when a sound resounded from the outside hallway.

"Did.... did someone just drop their key?" he asked, getting up.

"Shit, shit, he is_ not _supposed to be back yet" she said, bolting up and looking around for some form of omnipotent eye the man planted to screw with her. "Go hide!" she fiercely whispered.

"Where?" He was looking, but everything, even the inside of the closet, was kept open and viewable.

"Uh, under my bed! Hurry!" He dashed into the other room, which contained two beds. Without even glancing at the one stacked with files and other paperwork, he ducked under the unmade one. There was a small curtain covering the bottom from view, a lucky thing for him.

Being a hotel room, though a luxurious one at that, there was not much room for a human being. There was not much choice however, so he crammed himself the best he could anyway. Settled down after a moment, tried to calm his breathing, and listened, hard to do with one ear smashed against the carpeting.

"What have you been up to?" immediately left L's mouth once the door closed.

"Nothing, I swear."

He heard the man walk around. "Did you get something on pay-per-view again?"

"No." He heard the television turn off. "What's with the bag you're holding?"

"Don't change the subject, T. What did you do?" She was going to get them screwed, most definitely. He heard the mentioned bag being dropped on the table.

"I swear I'm innocent! I plea the fifth!"

"The fifth is not a part of this country." The detective already sounded bored with her.

"It isn't?"

"Not for you it isn't." He heard the man walk onto tile, then pick up something ceramic from the counter. "Why do you have two coffee mugs out?"

"Oh, uh, the first one was dirty."

"Which one?"

_This isn't good _ran through his head like a carousel, repeating over and over again.

"The, ah, red one." More footsteps, then something spilled into the sink.

L, he assumed, walked back to wherever T was in the kitchen and set the mug down, lightly so it did not break, but hard enough for the ceramic to echo a sound. "It's clean."

"Oops." The detective most likely already guessed that he was under the bed. Maybe it was all a trap? The possibility was starting to seem very likely. Damn super detective.

"Oops is correct, T. Stop wasting cups." She was being... lectured? "I thought I made that clear to you yesterday when you decided to use three along with three straws as well" L said. "You keep leaving fingerprints everywhere."

Her voice took a defensive pitch. "I just wanted to see what flavor coffee, tea, and soda would make if you sipped them all at the same time, and you can't mix soda with the two because it's all cold. It was a valid experiment and you're just jealous you didn't come up with it yourself!" He heard light footsteps, the girl's, approach where he assumed the detective was standing. Then, he heard something he did not expect, which almost sickened him.

Did he just kick her?

He did. Sure, Light could tell from knowing a little fighting that it was a very weak blow, but it was still against a woman. No wonder L didn't bat an eye when using such illegal and controversial methods trying to catch him. Even more odd, in his opinion, was that she started laughing, like this occurred as often as someone took their vitamins. "That was my butt, you pervert!"

"It was not of perverted intention. You were just being irritating."

"You liked it."

"Kicking you?" he inquired.

He did not enjoy being under this bed, listening to these two's banter. That girl better not take long to create an opening for him to escape. Light struggled to position himself so that he was ready to scram out from under this dust-ladened prison. Heavier footsteps, L's, walked into the room. He could see a small amount of the man's shadow, making it easy to tell he had sat on the other bed, the one covered in paperwork. His supposed new partner in crime waltzed in a minute later. "You're already going to work?" she asked. Her feet were almost directly in front of his face.

The detective gave that know-it-all-smart-ass tone he was learning to despise. "There is still a mass murderer killing criminals among us."

"Right, right. Off on your justice duty, never having a freaking ten-minute break for a little fun." She dropped herself onto her bed, which caused the mattress to dent into the little space between it and the floor, also known as the place where Light's torso was currently residing. He was caught off-guard and tried to muffle his grunt as much as he could. L, who took to typing not a minute earlier, did not have the slightest pause in his speed; the man did not hear it.

"And what would your idea of fun be?" the detective asked, not looking up, according to his shadow.

Her body seemed to go rigid, and her feet slowly slid back to his viewing area. About time she remembered he was under her bed. "Oh, I don't know, maybe seeing a movie? Going out to breakfast? Shopping for a wardrobe with more variety?" She added, "I could find you some really nice jeans if we tried hard enough. You look like a purple to me."

"Did I not give you work to do?" She probably nodded. "I highly doubt you went through all of them already." The dent lifted completely, and the young man watched her leave the room. The typing continued, almost a form of torture to break a person, for another two minutes in her absence before abruptly stopping. "In_ here, _T. You are reading them where I can see you." The footsteps returned, dejected. The girl softly lowered herself back onto Light.

He could tell that this man had no intention of even leaving the room at any point in the near future, so he fixed himself into a more comfortable position, preparing for a long day.

----

L had managed to keep himself occupied in the bedroom until much after dusk. The girl fell asleep every so often, he calculated the average to be once every two hours, thirty-three minutes, and seventeen seconds. In that time, he would turn the previously recorded audio on his laptop, which sounded as if he was still typing, and fiddled with the Rubix cube he kept under his pillow or sneaked off to get something to eat.

The man wanted to laugh very much at Light's belief that his presence went unnoticed, though resisted the urge. The curtain hiding him was close to see-through. The other urge, he fell to as result of using all of his energy on the former one. He called up Watari and asked, thoroughly annoyed, why the older man thought it was a good idea to buy Terra neon-yellow jeans, which she put on immediately after opening the bag he was told to give to her. He really should have checked it beforehand, a mistake he would not make twice. L satisfied himself by thinking he would burn them the minute she left that atrocious thing alone.

It was close to midnight when he turned off the laptop and laid down, not bothering with the covers. The girl had been still for an hour already, and thrashing the hour before that. Waiting he was, for the unmistakable sound. Light was much more cautious than expected, not prying himself from the cramped space under her bed until he made a couple very convincing snores.

The young man quickly straightened himself, brushing his clothes off lightly. The detective could feel the glare directed upon his back. He then proceeded to tiptoe to the doorway.

Excited, he counted Kira's steps. Even quicker, he uprighted himself and followed silently, the loudness of his footsteps earlier being entirely faked of course. The man was almost touching the doorknob before L decided to speak. "Do not stay out too late, Light."

He spun around, startled. "Ryuzaki" he said. The young man straightened his shirt. "How long have you...?" Someone was regretting not looking back when leaving.

"Known? If the coffee cups were not enough of a signal, your groaning certainly was. She did indeed forget you were there, if you were wondering." He gave away no emotion, and kept his usual slouched stance as if catching a Kira suspect trying to creep out of his hotel room was a natural thing and did not deserve much reaction. Inside, he was smirking.

Light kept his own demeanor as well. "I suppose I'll be going then. See you tomorrow" he told L. The young man was trying to escape with as little humility as possible.

"I have already spoke to your father earlier, so you will not have to worry about coming up with an excuse for being out so late. You were assisting me personally about dissecting the tapes the second Kira left." This was beyond a ninety-percent chance that it was his win. He wouldn't dare say one-hundred, but it was very close.

The two gave their departs, and the detective oversaw him getting in the elevator before closing the hotel door. He made a mental note to review the rest of the night's security tapes tomorrow, in case the man swiped a key. He walked back to his and the girl's bedroom, not bothering to glance at her figure when sitting himself back where it was comfortable on the bed, knees close to his chin. He grabbed the laptop, pushed the power button so it could start up. "You're not fooling anyone, Miss Terra."

She propped herself up. "How'd you know?"

This time he bothered to look at her, cocking his head to the side. "You should learn your sleeping habits before faking rest." L's attention returned to the screen, now at the login page. "You thrash."

"Damn it."

**We're officially in the double-digits, woo!**


	11. Tightrope

**There were too many names to bother posting.**

**I'm going to stop doing this part.**

Tightrope

_"Remember, Miss Terra, that what I am about to say is absolutely confidential_. Con-fi-dent-al_,_ _do you understand that large word?" She nodded vigorously and stuck her tongue out during the motion. "Good. Do not bring up this night to anyone except to Watari, and keep it vague even then in case someone is listening."_

_ "Are you going to confess to me?" she asked politely._

_ The detective didn't acknowledge her question. "Please refrain from saying useless things until after I am done."_

She yawned at the memory and looked over at Light, who she was escorting once again. This time, however, it was not to a hotel. L finally got them that nice headquarters, so there would be no more moving locations. It was great.

No, she took that back. The security checks were hellish, and the lack of elevator music was much more so. Not to mention how the windows were covered at all times, and when you felt that they were being watched at all times, guess what? You _were,_ by all these hidden cameras. It felt like a large, fancy, metal prison. Not nearly as fun as it seemed on paper.

"May I ask where you're taking me today?" Light asked politely, making a gesture to the tinted windows of the car hiding the world from him.

"I would _love _to, but as you can see, it's a little bit of a secret," she teased. They did not make eye contact. The last night was not forgotten. _Well, it was worth a shot_, she thought. It occurred to her that she needed to be on his good side, or else Kira might kill her in the worst way imaginable. "Um, I'm sorry."

"For what?" He looked amiable, but a shiver of fear went down the girl's spine.

She gestured with her hand. "You know, for, uh, hiding you under the hotel bed. That wasn't a good idea. I bet you knew that."

Watari coughed, and her attention was drawn on his rear view mirror; he was staring._ A note to self: Be less conspicuous, Thompson. Right_. What she said would sound strange in any context, not to mention suspicious in hers. Only crazy people who murder with a notebook would shove people under beds.

Light held no expression, focused on the windshield in front of him. The driver couldn't be cut off from the passengers because, though it would be safer to have no face exposure, a certain young man could kill everyone in the car plus some criminals if given the opportunity. "Mmmm."

Terra took it as accepting her apology. "Are we almost there, Watari?"

"Close." He wasn't really allowed to say.

She waved her hand in front of the killer's face to get his attention. "We're close! See Light, this is going to be fun. You get to work with L now, and prove you're not Kira!" He nodded seriously. "Geez, lighten up, you serial killer," she then murmured. That he did not find humorous as well.

Their car pulled in front of building. "This is your stop," the elderly man told them. The doors automatically unlocked, allowing them to get out. Light straightened his clothes once on the sidewalk. Terra waved the driver off excessively. She assumed Watari waved back.

Light looked around while stretching his arms and back out, a normal thing to do for someone cooped up in a car, unable to see what was going on. However, he was really observing the area, memorizing every detail of pertinence, including where the security cameras were located. He then turned as if to look at the cars passing by; it was the only way his mouth movements would not be recorded. "What were you doing?" he asked irritably.

"Making small talk," Terra said. She had stopped walking, but was facing the opposite direction of him. Everything about her was exposed on the cameras.

"Why, exactly?"

She smiled to no one. "I need to keep good relations with you. If not, L might get suspicious as to how much you're letting me know, and if he realizes I don't know anything, he'll wonder why Kira is keeping someone who can easily rat on him alive." Terra swished her hair as she turned, and struck a pose. "You don't want to lose your only spy on L, right?"

He finally turned around, only to raise an eyebrow at the girl's modeling skills. "Interesting way to put it, but yes, that would be inconvenient."

"Excuse me? I'm a convenience?" She sounded offended, placing her hand to her chest like the fragile heart inside was hurt.

Light started to walk inside. "An _important_ inconvenience." He beckoned to her to follow and looked straight at the cameras, over pronouncing "Let's go" so they would pick up the message up with no doubt.

One of the task force members were there as they walked in, waiting impatiently. He tapped his watch and asked something in Japanese. The young man replied, using his innocent face, also in that language. She was confused, but it must have had something to do with how long they were outside.

The three of them went through the necessary security checks, and once cleared, took the elevator to the famous detective.

"Good morning, Ryuzaki," Light said, and sat down in the seat directly next to him. Terra decided to take the one on the opposite side of L. She also wished him a good morning, though it was most likely the same day for him, just stretching on forever.

The detective was fixed on the monitors in front of him, barely paying attention to what he was typing on the computer. Now that took talent.

A young woman was confined in a cell, shackled and blindfolded in a standing position. She looked as if she had been there for at least a day, blond hair mussed much more than it was used to. Light took an obvious interest, not bothering to conceal it. "What are you doing, Ryuzaki?"

"Holding a Kira suspect in confinement," the man responded dryly.

"Yeah," the girl agreed. "She's been seen as suspicious." Then a thought from the previous day resurfaced. "Oh! On a different topic, I have an announcement!"

Light inwardly sighed. This kid was so random; he hated it. Unpredictability is harder to plan for. He wondered when she would be of no longer use and he could kill her. From eavesdropping on their conversation a few days back, he had her first name, Terra. The last could be weaseled out of her if the brunette was convincing enough, smoozing the girl to believe that Kira would never kill her, and her last name would simply bring them closer together.

The mental assessing of information took only a blink's worth of time, so Light was able to listen to this "announcement". "OK, so we were discussing this for the past few days-"

"-Who is 'we'?" Matsuda asked in simple English.

"Good question. L and I were discussing." The man smiled a little for being told for once that he didn't ask something stupid. "We decided that, like Ryuzaki," she pointed at the man focused on his work, "everyone on the task force running around calling me T is not the brightest idea." Some were following still despite Terra's fast-paced speaking, and translated a summary for the ones who were lost after the first sentence.

"I suppose using that would be suspicious," Soichiro said. "What should we call you then?"

At this, the girl walked over to one of the tables away from the computers and picked up a small whiteboard and a dry-erase marker, both previously left alone because no one knew what they were for. "Terra." She spelled the word out in big block letters on the board, the marker squeaking as she did so.

T-A-R-A

Light's eyes flared as he sharply in-took air, unnoticeable unless someone was observing him closely, which L did. He silently had swiveled his chair to face him when everyone was distracted by T. He expected the killer to have a reaction, as minor as it was. Being taken by surprise by the detective's move, it was a seventy-four percent chance that he would display some outer emotion. The other twenty-eight percent, incorrect now, was in case Light anticipated the scenario or it made no difference to him.

L could now be positive Light was indeed eavesdropping. Now that piece of information, Terra's name, was made useless, or at least had doubt surrounding it. Who, when working with and against Kira, would use their real first name as their alias? It was unlikely, and therefore almost perfect, especially with there being more than one way to write the foreign name.

"Light," the detective addressed him. "You seem quite interested in T's choice of name." He smiled. "The likelihood of you being Kira has risen three percent."

The mask of calm washed over the younger man's face. He smiled back. "Of course I am. Why is she using a Western name when we are Japan?" Shit, L got him. It made sense now, why he was allowed to leave unguarded from the hotel room. It was a ploy, temptation that only Kira would try to find his assistant's name. They made him believe he was gaining the upper hand, only to attack from behind. Now the detective knows he was listening and why he was listening, all from_ Tara's _little announcement._ Little my ass_, he thought.

Terra was relieved; it worked. Light bought it. It was a good thing almost everyone in this series over thought things, assumed every sentence spoken and action taken was a trap. L had come up with the plan early this morning, before she picked the man up with Watari. "Miss Terra," he had said, "Kira knows half of your name. I believe it is time for you to take up an alias."

"Really? I get to have one of those now too? Sweet!" She fist-pumped the air.

He had kept his entire body blank. "It will be Tara." She stopped immediately and whined. "Light had overheard me address you as Miss Terra already. It would be suspicious if your alias was anything else." He had a point. She didn't like it when he had a point. In the end, only a few minutes later, she agreed, and that was how the present came into place.

The girl kept receiving requests to repronounce it as some of the.... slower task force members had a hard time saying it. She was starting to get irritated when Light's father saved her.

Soichiro cleared his throat. All attention abruptly went to him. "Ryuzaki, about the suspect?"

The girl in custody was still on the big screen, only ignored because T had obnoxiously changed the subject. She squirmed a little, perhaps because she was uncomfortable, perhaps because of an instinct that multiple pairs of eyes were on her.

"Yes, Mr. Yagami. That is indeed our focus for the present." L swiveled his chair so it once again faced the screens. "Light, do you know who this is?"

Why should he? The detective must have memorized all of the girlfriends he had since the investigation started, and none of them were blond. "It's hard to tell with the restraints all over her body."  
L's eyes lolled in Terra's direction, a hint from being accusing. "We are currently holding Misa Amane in custody." Light was not shocked or as angered as he was with the alias. In fact, he seemed just plain confused. This was not good....

"You mean_ the _Misa Amane?_ Misa-Misa_?" Everyone was surprised, especially Matsuda, who seemed to be one of the only people there who followed pop culture.

The brunette tilted his head. He could tell it was her now. "Exactly why are you putting a model in what looks to be sexual restraints, Ryuzaki?" This man was so hard to understand; maybe it was a fetish of that strange, black-haired man's.

"Umm," Terra said, not directed at the surrounding group, but at the detective. She walked the few feet to his chair and rested her chin on his shoulder. "I think we jumped on that bandwagon a tad too early," she whispered._ No shit_, his black eyes seemed to say,_ was this not your idea? _The girl straightened and backed away; she had been around him for too long in order to be able to tell what he wanted to say. Either that, or her head did a very good impression of L.

L, completely opposite from the girl's reaction, stared at the screen with a bored look on his face. "I suspect that this woman has direct connection to Kira," he bluffed. It was not a lie, it just has not happened yet. Nor will he let it.

"What?" Disbelief was cast around the room.

"That's impossible! She's a model! What connection would she have to Kira?" The voice the detective was waiting to hear. Light had no idea yet that Misa was the second Kira, he supposed, which meant Terra either prevented what would have been a very troublesome alliance between Kiras or they just showed Light who his ally was and saved him the trouble of finding her himself.

Either way, this had become a more delicate subject than first anticipated, seeing as he did not back the killer into a corner like he thought he would. Damn Terra can't get her timelines straight.

Soichiro asked, "Do you know how close she is to Kira, exactly?"

"That is currently classified above all of you for now."

"So you don't know," Aizawa murmured._ Hah_, the detective thought,_ if only_.

Light had remained silent after his outburst, musing. Several emotions and trains of thought were streaming through his head, none he let live on his face. Humiliation; L had succeeded in tricking him. Anger; having the upper hand on the girl turned out to be harder than originally thought. Confusion; were they serious about a model having a connection to Kira? To _him_?

Then there was the sick excitement whirling in spirals about his stomach. Being a celebrity, Misa Amane's information would be easy to access. Once he found out a little of her personality, finding a way to speak to her should be easy, and coaxing her into working with him easier.

If all went well, Light would have one full-time pawn, unlike L, who only has a half of one. T, as if sensing his thoughts, locked eyes with the young man for a moment and gave a thumbs-up.

He could see the future, and it shone two shades brighter.

* * *

**AN: I switched to third-person omnipotent for the chapter, which I found easier to write. I need to know if it's a good change or if it just made you all confused.**


	12. Torment

**It's settled; I'm sticking with third person omnipotent. Oh, and though it really isn't recommended, I changed my pen name. Do not be alarmed, I repeat, do not.....**

Torment

"Light, it's for you!" his mother said from the kitchen. He was in his room with Ryuk, performing the duties of Kira. _Strange_, he thought,_ all my friends have my cell phone number. Why call my home phone?_

He opened a desk drawer and hid the Death Note temporarily, then walked out of the room, habitually setting the door handle trap, before walking down the stairs. Ryuk was in the middle of a game of Mario Kart, so he did not follow.

Upon placing his foot on the last step, Sachiko handed him the wireless receiver. "I didn't know you had a new girlfriend, sweetie." He didn't.

"Hello?"

"I'm surprised; your mother's English is quite decent." Tara.

Still in front of his mother, he said, "Oh. I wasn't expecting your call so soon." He gestured to the woman that he was taking the conversation upstairs, where it was private. She smiled and went back to her business cheerfully, saying something about her son attracting nice foreign girls.

The killer bolted back up the stairs and quickly shut and locked the door to his room. "What's going on, Light?" Ryuk asked, not concerned at all, merely entertained at the look on his face.

"Shut up," Light told him.

"I didn't say anything," T said.

He wanted to throw something. "Not you, Ryuk." He figured she already knew who that was, and if not, she'd just think he was schizophrenic. No big deal in his book, once a person knows he commits mass murder supernaturally.

"Oh!" Her voice perked up. "Can I talk to him?"

"No, no you can't. How did you get this number and why are you calling me?" He asked bluntly. There was not really any other way to ask, but the intonation gave his question a cold, steel edge, like he shouldn't have to ask these questions because he did not want L's assistant on the phone with him ever.

T gave a knowing giggle. "Ryuzaki has his connections," she said. "I also have your address, by the way."

"That is creepy," Light said. "And my cell phone wasn't good enough because...?"

"I'm not stupid," she huffed. "Did you really think something like that wouldn't be bugged?" On the other end, Terra knew it was a lie, the detective was never given the opportunity as the phone was always on his person, but it sounded plausible. Plausible was all that she needed. "The home phone wasn't deemed that important. Kira wouldn't be stupid enough to call people from his house."

It was a good point, he thought, but at the same time L didn't seem like someone who would take such a little chance. "Please don't call me that; you know I'm innocent." There was nothing he could do about the Ryuk comment now, but the young man could at least not sound like he was OK with being called Kira, just in case the home phone was bugged as well. "The reason you are calling?" Cool, smooth, but on the inside he was reeling. That sick, twisted wariness that came with talking with the girl, talking with who may be L's left hand, as Watari was obviously his right.

She listed off an address hurriedly, one he memorized before she told him what place it was. "Go there. You'll recognize it, I suspect. Meet me outside on the southern end, next to the brick building."

"Why should I? If Ryuzaki wanted anything to do with me today, I think I would know by now." He had been given what was assumed as a free day, probably just another test to see if the amount of criminals killed spiked once Light had an opportunity to be alone.

She sighed. "I think someone needs to learn the meaning of trust." The line clicked and a dull tone began to drone. The girl had hung up.

This time, he all too willingly let the impulse to throw the phone take momentary control of him. Light aimed at the pillow on his bed, as it would result in no electronics or walls breaking, and hit the target with deadly accuracy. Ryuk got up from his game and chuckled. "Things not going as planned?" he asked. The killer glared at him. "Good. Things were getting boring anyway."

Though the stubborn part of him didn't want to follow T's orders, Light grabbed a jacket and headed for the door.

---

Terra shivered as a gust of wind blew into the alley she was standing in, one completely devoid of life and not threatening due to the sun's cast. She considered going back inside and grabbing a coat or something, but he was going to show up at any minute.

The girl thought about what she was doing, and realized she was not a fan of waiting. School came into mind, the place where she had always brought her own lunch because standing behind tons of other students to get greasy food never appealed to her. Now though, she missed it, even just the smell of it. Although being in this other Japan kept her busy in mind and body with the fight between L and Kira, a wave of home-sickness would still occasionally strike, reminding Terra Thompson that she didn't belong.

Fortunately, as she began to get caught up in the past, Light appeared from the corner, walking confidently like he had arranged the meeting and arrived to it fashionably late. "All right," he said, "I'm waiting for my trust lesson." He was quite aware by now that they were just outside the headquarters.

She smiled coyly, putting an air on herself. She held out her hand to him; in it was a piece of lined paper. "Your reward for showing up."

He took it nonchalantly, and opened it. It was a scribbled map of the layout of the building, complete with little arrows that ended in a room marked 'Cell'. "Is this....?" The young man let his voice drift off.

"I'm pretty amazing, huh? Just like you wanted." Tara flipped her hair smugly. "Now, you can stray off the path of the arrows, but the cameras are turned off for that path, so you'll be seen. You have about ten minutes to get your business done. I'll call your cell phone when time's up and hang up after one ring. That means get out of there. Any questions?"

For once, he was impressed. Light did not expect a girl like her, despite being L's assistant, to have any real abilities, like the hacking it took to take down the cameras or the planning for this meeting to happen. "One thing. Is there some sort of key to get in the cell?"

"Oh!" She smacked her head. "Almost forgot." The girl reached into her jeans pocket for the object, which drew his eyes to something he somehow not noticed until then.

"Your pants," he pointed out.

"Yes, what about them?"

"They're....... yellow."

She huffed again. "I'm not colorblind! I know what color they are," T said. She handed him the key. "Off with you."

Light placed himself on the map, and began to walk around to the other side of the building. With so many floors, this was going to take a while.

Terra watched him leave, smiling. It flitted off her face once he was gone. "No 'thank you, Tara, for helping out', no, 'Gee Tara, what would I do without you?' Nothing." The girl combed through her short hair with her fingers absent-mindedly and decided she needed a hair cut soon. She kicked a stray pebble, waiting for a large enough time gap for her to go inside without being suspicious. "I wonder, does he really think I know how to hack?"

---

Misa tried to change her position in the restraints. Was all this necessary? She had tried her best to comply with her stalker, but there was only so much she could say. Rem had helped when the model was being interrogated, gently poking her in the side before she had said too much.

The two of them had considered having Misa give up her memories, the shinigami mostly, but in the end, Misa was too desperate to meet the first Kira to do such a thing. _I can't give up yet_, she thought, _Kira will need me; I have the eyes. I have to do it for him._

Attempting to speak to her stalker did not produce results about her kidnapping or her restraints, as he, if it was a he, would answer with questions and confuse her. All she knew was that it had something to do with Kira. With her having a connection with Kira. The stalker apparently didn't know what this connection was, and neither did she. Up until now, the model has been living her life thinking she had no idea who Kira was. But that computer voice coming from somewhere in the room was starting to make her think otherwise. Any longer restrained, and she'd start to think she and Kira were childhood friends.

It had been a few hours since her last questioning, and the model began to fidget again. Everything was so uncomfortable, the restraints, the room, her skin. A noise creaked; the door had opened. She became eerily still. "Is that you, Mr. Stalker?"

"Hello Misa," a soothing voice, completely unlike the electronic one she had been hearing for days, said. "No, I am not your stalker."

"Ah." She was confused, but didn't ask any questions. "These restraints are tight," she told the stranger.

Two hands were suddenly playing with the various belts, trying to loosen them, but not undo them. One brushed against her leg, and she realized he was using his shirt sleeves as gloves. "Feel any better?" Hearing him was calming; this man was definitely not the person who locked her up, especially so since he was making sure no stray fingerprints were on her.

"Yes, thank you." Curiosity was biting at her; she wanted to know everything. However, if she asked too much, he might get annoyed and leave.

"I would like to ask you a question," the nice voice asked. "Will you answer it?" Misa was willing to answer anything at this point, and Rem did not give any signal otherwise, so it must be OK. She tried to nod. "What connection do you have to Kira?"

It was to be expected, but it sounded so much better hearing it from this stranger than that voice. "I don't." She wriggled in the restraints, forgetting to speak in third person, though it was just a tactic her manager decided on anyway, and therefore not important. Why did they keep asking her?

"That's all right," he soothed. "It's fine." Misa calmed down. The hands returned and gripped around her, connecting at the back of the metal holding her up.

He was hugging her.

Rem made a noise, but was ignored by the only person that could hear her. She didn't approve of this man, he looked like trouble, but the stranger was offering Misa more comfort than she ever could. She decided not to kill him.

"Do you have a Death Note?" he asked mid-hug.

"Yes." She was startled, but he must be on the side of Kira's justice to know that, which made it all right to answer.

"Do you have the eyes?"

"Yes."

The arms uncurled from around her and the stranger backed away. Disappointed at the sudden removal of touch, the model whimpered, a desperate, lonely sound. "I am going to get you free of here," the voice said. "I can't right now, but I will, and you will help me change this world to a better place where you won't ever have to feel those restraints again, Misa."

"I..... I would like that," she replied.

Silence, then the suspicious sound of a cell phone going off in a pants pocket. It hung up after one ring. Footsteps headed in a retreating direction, where Misa believed the door was. She could hear the handle turn. He was leaving.

Impulsively, she called out, "Wait!"

The handle was most likely down by now, the door ready to open with a slight pull. "Yes?"

"Who are you?"

There was a thoughtful pause, and the model realized he didn't have to answer. He did though, thankfully. "Your savior," was the vague response she ended up receiving. Then the door closed and she was alone again.

A lot of people over her life, especially in the tabloids, like to point out that Misa Amane wasn't that bright and rather slow on understanding speed. Really though, it was partially a lie, like speaking in third person, that her manager put out. The public likes a smart model less than a stupid one.

She proved it herself right then that she was more intelligent than people thought, understanding the stranger's implication immediately. Misa just had an audience with Kira himself. A happy sigh emitted from her mouth; there was hope now, hope that she'd be released.

---

Light felt exhausted as he left the building, no need to pull the paper out as he had already memorized the path. It had been a while since he needed to pull off that act of being the nice guy. He stopped momentarily, a hitch in his step, and pondered when it had become an act. The thought passed though, and he continued his stride.

Luckily for him, Misa Amane had quite a few advantages over Tara. She was undeniably a Kira fan and had possession of a Death Note and the eyes. There was no need to worry whether or not L put the model up to saying anything or acting a certain part. She spoke fluent Japanese, like him, with no need of translation. Best of all, she was easily wooed, especially in her situation.

The outside air greeted the young man with the scent of pollution masking the scent of success. _Yes_, he decided, _Misa made the perfect pawn_.

* * *

**You're dumbstruck, thinking, "Didn't she update yesterday? Don't I have to wait a month for an update?" This is not going to become a habit, I assure you.**


End file.
